Cowherd: Steelers Next Best Step Is Moving On From Kenny Pickett

The Pittsburgh Steelers officially moved on from Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada on Tuesday morning as a big division game against the Cincinnati Bengals awaits them in Week 12. Running backs coach, Eddie Faulkner will act as the new coordinator while quarterbacks coach, Mike Sullivan will call the plays for the struggling unit. It's hard to imagine the group performing worse than it has since the beginning of 2021 under Canada, but now there is no excuse for the organization if second-year quarterback, Kenny Pickett, continues to play poorly throughout the rest of the 2023 season.

The final seven regular season matchups for Pickett will be the most important of his career. If the offense looks just as boring and Pittsburgh finds a way to miss the playoffs, there are going to be a lot of questions in the Steel City. It may even force upper management to bring someone not named Mitchell Trubisky or Mason Rudolph in to compete with Pickett in 2024.

Colin Cowherd is never shy of speaking what he believes, especially when it comes to the Steelers. On Tuesday, during a segment on The Herd, he wanted to talk about the Canada firing, but had an interesting twist. He believes the team is going nowhere with Pickett as the signal-caller and it might already be time to sit him down and move on from the former first round pick.

"You can spot ineffective and highly effective very quickly [in the NFL]. Matt Canada didn't help. The system, the scheme, not perfect, but it's the first of two steps. The other one will be much more difficult, moving off the local kid."

Cowherd passionately used examples of how easy it has been to recognize and acknowledge that guys like CJ Stroud, Jordan Addison and Jahmyr Gibbs are going to be good professional football players for a long time. He believes that everyone already knows what Pickett is and that he simply isn't good enough to start, similarly to Zach Wilson and Desmond Ridder.

Canada may be the scapegoat that the Steelers had in mind, but there will be no more excuses if Pickett continues to struggle. Cowherd said that, while Pittsburgh is known for having incredible drafts and developing players, Pickett has been a swing and a miss. The worst part is that he has failed to perform at a high level with an awesome amount of talent around him.

"Firing Matt Canada is the first step, but in the last 10 games, Kenny Pickett has six touchdown passes. As good as [Pittsburgh] drafts and as brilliantly developed, he's getting worse. Nine of his 22 games as an NFL quarterback, he hasn't thrown a touchdown pass with excellent wide receivers and a great young tight end."

Cowherd is focusing on starts, as Pickett has an extra game on his resume that he did not start back in Week 4 of 2022. Far more goes into evaluating a quarterback than a stat sheet, but there's no possible way one can look at Pickett's career game log of 23 contests played and be encouraged by what they come across. He has 13 touchdowns and the same amount of interceptions during his time in the NFL so far.

Questions will start to be asked about the quarterback situation in Pittsburgh if Pickett doesn't produce more under his new play-caller and offensive coordinator. The fear was that, if the Steelers drafted the wrong signal-caller in 2022, it could have serious negative consequences. It's starting to look like that may be more of a possibility than previously imagined.

Steelers Need To Be Honest With Themselves Regarding Pickett Moving Forward

In a quarterback-driven league, Pittsburgh will have no choice but to bring in true competition to push Pickett in 2024. Rudolph will be a free agent which will allow the front office to either sign or draft a signal-caller. Times of defense winning championships are no longer and the Steelers need to keep up with the status quo if the franchise wants a Super Bowl anytime soon.

Do you think it's already time for the Steelers to move on from Pickett? Let us know in the comments below!

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