My stance on Pickett at this point is:
1. Pickett has some legitimately major issues that may prevent him from ever being a legitimate NFL starter. All of these are issues IMO:
-He is entirely too quick to bail on the pocket, he tends to do his stupid spin move right into pressure and doesn't know how to step up into the pocket.
-He gets skittish whenever there is any sort of pressure and defaults to throwing it down to a safe check-down option way too much.
-He doesn't know how to protect himself, seeing how he seemingly gets injured every other game.
-He doesn't go through progressions well, which is probably related to the 2nd point about him getting skittish whenever there is pressure.
2. The team has put him in a position to fail by not actually focus on developing him and instead trying to maintain Tomlin's stupid non-losing record streak.
It blows my mind that the team doesn't get more criticism for how they've handled Pickett. Granted a lot of Steelers fans probably have lead poisoning from the Pittsburgh water, hence why there is a vocal part of the fanbase screaming for Mason Rudolph to be playing, but the Steelers gave basically a perfect example on how to not develop a QB prospect. Even if you are totally convinced Pickett sucks and is a pure bust, there is no way you can even begin to argue that this team handled him well. I'm even going to take Matt Canada out of the equation entirely, I think you can argue they handled him horribly without even needing to mention Canada.
The team was too impatient to let Pickett figure out what works and what doesn't work in the NFL, just because they're a win-now team and couldn't tolerate the thought of not having a winning season. Pickett was really turnover prone in his first 5 or so games last year, but he was also trying to figure out what he could and couldn't do in the NFL. You're not going to learn what a "NFL open receiver" is unless you're taking chances in games. When was the last time you saw Pickett take a chance like this:
He doesn't do that anymore, he's been beaten into playing scared of turning the ball over. That is how the team failed put him in a position to fail. Because this team is a "win-now" team (in their eyes), they weren't willing to let Pickett actually discover what works in the NFL and instead made him change to playing ultra conservatively with the ball to ensure he doesn't turn it over. That is a horrendous way at developing a QB, Pickett can't learn what does and doesn't work in the NFL if he has to play scared of turning the ball over. He has completely regressed at this point and seems like he has no confidence.
It's just frustrating because both of these parties are better off without each other. Pickett is better off playing for a team that actually has a coherent offensive system and support cast, while also having the patience to let Pickett work through his growing pains and learn what works and doesn't work in the NFL. Pickett obviously might not work out as a NFL QB because of his flaws, but that situation would actually be putting him in a position to succeed rather than the mess he's in on the Steelers. The Steelers need a better QB than Pickett just because their offensive system is such a mess that even a fully confident Pickett wouldn't be good enough in it. Like what has already been said, the Steelers should have used that 1st rounder on Pickett to draft OL help and then signed someone like Carr to be their starter.
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