The Pittsburgh Steelers had themselves a new starting quarterback in the form of 1st round draft pick Kenny Pickett, who took over from the struggling veteran Mitchell Trubisky earlier in the 2022 NFL season.
And while it wasn’t completely smooth sailing, Pickett rebounded nicely in order to lead the Steelers on the verge of a postseason spot. Unfortunately, despite the winning record of 9-8, the Steelers would fall just short of qualifying for the postseason and had to watch from home.
How does head coach Mike Tomlin feel about Pickett heading into his second season? He had nothing but good things to say about him.
“I’m excited about Kenny individually in terms of the growth that he’s capable of making and, and what he’s willing to do to realize that,” Tomlin told ESPN’s Brooke Pryor on Sunday at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix. “I think I’m probably more excited about that because I’ve just been around him intimately now for 12 months. There was some anticipation things because of the close proximity that we’ve all talked about quite a bit, but the reality of having worked with him for 12 months, it’s just more evidence of what we should be excited about — his willingness to work, his professional approach, his maturity in processing. It’s exciting.”
He also explained that the continuity in having Matt Canada remain as offensive coordinator was key.
“I think it’s reasonable to expect that to be significant,” Tomlin said. “But we’ll have an opportunity to make it so.”