Almost half a decade after the Pittsburgh Steelers surprised the NFL world by grabbing Kenny Pickett with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 draft, the man who made that call still has no second thoughts. Former general manager Kevin Colbert recently went on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh and defended the selection, arguing that Pickett lived up to what the team asked of him during his two seasons under center.
“We projected Kenny to be a start-and-win NFL quarterback, and quite honestly, he lived up to that in his first two seasons with us,” Colbert said. “For us, he was 14-10 and trending in the right direction. So that’s what we thought we had in Kenny.”
Pickett, who played his college ball at Pitt and was supposed to be the hometown hero replacing Ben Roethlisberger, finished his Steelers tenure with 4,474 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions while completing just under 63% of his throws across 25 games. But after two middling seasons, the organization decided to move on, and Pickett has made only three starts since leaving the Steel City.
Colbert, who stepped down after the 2022 draft, remains bullish on the 28-year-old’s future. “Kenny’s a great young man. He’s a great competitor. … And I still think at a young age, I still think Kenny can continue to build on what he did with us in those first two seasons,” he added.
The Steelers have yet to find a long-term answer at quarterback following Pickett’s departure. Instead, they’ve cycled through aging stopgaps at the game’s most important position and largely ignored the QB spot in the draft. That approach has raised eyebrows, especially given Pittsburgh’s storied history of having only two franchise signal-callers — a span that stretched more than two decades between them.
Some analysts have even suggested the team consider more drastic moves, like trading star pass rusher T.J. Watt for a first-round pick to accelerate a rebuild. But Colbert’s defense of the Pickett pick underscores how the organization viewed the local product as a legitimate building block — even if the results didn’t match the hype.
While Pickett’s career has stalled, Colbert’s conviction hasn’t wavered. “He’s a great competitor,” the former GM repeated, making it clear he believes Pickett can still redeem himself elsewhere in the league. Whether that belief proves prophetic or just another chapter in Pittsburgh’s quarterback carousel remains to be seen.
