Steelers QB Kenny Pickett Survives Strangest Week of Career

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett came out on top after the oddest week of his career.
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PITTSBURGH -- It was an odd week for the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially starting quarterback Kenny Pickett, whose first offensive coordinator in the NFL was shown the door as the team tried to kickstart a sluggish offense. 

Pickett called it the oddest week of his career, but was happy with the result - a 16-10 win for the Steelers over the Bengals in which they accounted for more than 400 yards of offense, something the team hadn't done since 2020.  

"It’s a lot of adversity, a lot of things going on, moving parts," Pickett said. "But like I said, felt like a short week almost because of when we got the news and how quickly we all had to kind of react to what happened and flush it and move on and get ready to go this week. Hats off to our guys in our locker room that did that.”

Pickett credited the Steelers' serenity in the face of a chaotic week to one of their new leaders - gameday play-caller Mike Sullivan, the quarterbacks coach who is working in tandem with interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner to run the unit. 

His prior relationship with Sullivan shined as the Steelers moved efficiently, controlled the clock and put up just enough points to down the Bengals on the road. 

“He’s steady. He’s always been steady," Pickett said of Sullivan. "He preaches that, as quarterbacks, you have to be steady. It’s always such and up and down game and league. A lot goes on during the week but he’s steady, steady as always and it’s great to have him calling the plays. He’s always by my side but now in a different kind of aspect.”

Pickett said the offense knows it's capable of playing like they did against the Bengals, if not better, every week. While there's plenty to improve on, he's happy to work on those things following a win. Pickett believes there are plenty of positives they can pull from the Bengals game and use as a springboard moving forward. 

"We always knew what we were capable of doing," Pickett said. "It’s just putting it together and we still haven’t 100% really put it together. We were driving really good, felt like we left points out there but you got to take the positives and just continue to march forward, which is what we plan on doing.”

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper. He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press. During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.