Kenny Pickett‘s second career start was headed in a much better direction than his first one before he had to exit the game. The rookie quarterback took a hard hit in the third quarter of the Steelers’ game against the Buccaneers, and suffered a concussion. The team quickly announced that he was out for the remainder of the game. 
The first-rounder replaced veteran Mitch Trubisky in the second half of Pittsburgh’s Week 4 game. To little surprise, that was followed by head coach Mike Tomlin naming him the starter moving forward. Pickett’s first full game ended in a 38-3 loss to the Bills, in which he threw for 327 yards and an interception.
That, coupled with a plethora of major injuries in the secondary, led to tempered expectations at best for today’s showing. However, Pickett went 11-of-18 for 67 yards and his first career touchdown pass prior to the injury. That gave the team a legitimate chance to pull of the upset at the time Trubisky came into the game. His benching had come after underwhelming performances, though, so his level of play came as a surprise as well.
Trubisky completed 9 of 12 passes, totaling 144 yards and one touchdown in relief. The score came on what ended up being the game-sealing drive, as the Steelers completed the 20-18 upset. That ended Pittsburgh’s losing streak, and could ease concerns about the former No. 2 overall pick resuming the starter’s role if doing so becomes necessary.
Pickett’s injury comes in the wake of new concussion protocols being agreed to and implemented. While much of the focus has been placed on erring on the side of caution with respect to removing players from games on the suspicion of head trauma, recovery timelines will not doubt be watched closely as well. Pickett’s status will be worth monitoring in the build-up to Pittsburgh’s game next Sunday against Miami.
Why they thought it was a good idea to put him in there when the line is atrocious is beyond me. Put Trubisky in there let him get beat up and then insert Kenny next year when you draft a top lineman and sign some dudes.
It’s just the NFL standard now. Teams don’t believe in letting rookie QB’s sit that long anymore, unless they are developmental long shots. It’s almost always preferred to start getting them real game snaps and experience ASAP, roster situation is irrelevant.
That’s pretty accurate and even veteran QBs can get concussed behind solid offensive lines…it happened to Big Ben.
Might as well just never play him then. It’s the NFL. Injuries happen.
To be fair the line was far from awful today, and they were missing starting center Cole for part of the game. There was a lot of room for improvement, and there still is, but they were better today.
Got play them and know what you have. Tired of all this waiting. Why can’t we see what we have now? Why can’t we start a rookie QB now and capitalize on the rookie contract now? Why can’t we get him ready now?
The Steelers should totally fire Tomlin. Such an awful win. Especially on the defensive end. They were only missing 3 cornerbacks and a safety /s
I know I’ve said it a couple of times before but the Steeler fans won’t truly appreciate Tomlin until they have to replace him.
I’ll never understand the Tomlin hate. Those who are so anxious to have him fired never think far enough ahead to suggest a replacement and that says it all. Just an emotional rant. They lose….Tomlin’s fault. They win and they won in spite of him.
And yet there were people here claiming he should be let go ASAP just days ago
Everyone who hates him thinks “someone new can’t be any worse”. Meanwhile, think of how many coaches some other teams have gone through just during the Tomlin era alone.
You must not have been watching Tomlin coaching games then. Poor judgment, time out waste, clock management and Canada as OC is all on him. The lack of discipline with guys like AB was also on him. I honestly was happy with Cowher as HC and wish he’d come back. Too many here are Tomlin apologists who accept the Steelers being mediocre at best and blame the team’s woes on anybody but Tomlin, like failed draft choices or bad signings.
Oh yes, tell me more about all zero head coaches that were able to successfully control AB.
“I honestly was happy with Cowher HC…”
Yeah, he was also a good coach. What’s your point? It’s not like we fired him
I’d send Tomlin to Canton just for having the skill to manage the mega egos of Big Ben, Brown, Bell and Harrison.
Tomlin wins one Super Bowl during the 2010 season and is never held accountable for anything he does or doesn’t do. 12 years of being in the range of excellent and mediocre each year is rather ridiculous.
Please do and send him to Minnesota, although I think we’re ok right now on the coaching.. hopefully.
That said I like Tomlinson
You watch the hit the caused the concussion and you wonder HOW?? No helmet to helmet, no whiplash like event, etc.
I seriously thought it had to be a rib type injury
So did I. Unless he hit his head on the turf, I’m stumped.
I think the Steelers overall problem has simply come down to personnel choices over the past several years. Huge debate here in town about how much input Tomlin has with all of that, from the draft to free agent signings
Let’s face it, the game has changed in the past decade. From the kinds of quarterbacks to the play calls. Guess my only complaint is that it seems in many aspects, the Steelers haven’t caught up in so many areas and that Tomlin always appears to want a huge hand in both the offense and defense when specialized coordinators are now the in thing in the NFL
That said, I always liked Pickett and would hope they take the shackles off to let him do his thing. This team isn’t going anywhere soon, so why not?