{"id":924508,"date":"2026-06-21T03:09:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/924508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T03:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:09:38","slug":"former-steelers-gm-kevin-colbert-defends-kenny-pickett-draft-pick-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/924508\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert defends Kenny Pickett draft pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Pittsburgh Steelers have been searching for their answer at quarterback ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Their first swing of the bat came in the 2022 NFL Draft when they selected Kenny Pickett from the University of Pittsburgh in the first round. Pickett had 42 touchdowns in his fifth and final year at Pitt and led the Panthers to the ACC Championship. However, Pickett was a bust with the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In 24 starts for the Steelers, Pickett threw just 13 touchdowns along with 13 interceptions. Of the 57 quarterbacks to play 200+ snaps from 2021-22, he ranked 37th in EPA. He also holds the lowest touchdown percentage in NFL history for quarterbacks with at least 500 pass attempts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Despite all of those results, former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert &#8211; the GM who drafted Pickett &#8211; still believes he was the right pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWe 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,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/steelers\/onsi\/kevin-colbert-defends-pittsburgh-steelers-brutal-kenny-pickett-decision\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colbert said via Jack Markowski<\/a>. \u201cFor us, he was 14-10 and trending in the right direction. So that\u2019s what we thought we had in Kenny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Since Pickett\u2019s brief time in Pittsburgh, the Steelers tried the likes of Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers, with Mason Rudolph serving as a spot starter and appearing in multiple games in 2025. Wilson and Fields combined for 21 touchdown passes, seven rushing touchdowns, and six interceptions. Rodgers threw for 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions last season, with Rudolph adding two touchdowns and two interceptions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have been searching for their answer at quarterback ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired following the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,15,2374],"class_list":["post-924508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116785903183850857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}