Rick Spielman says “slow it down” on Kenny Pickett hype

It looks as though the Pittsburgh Steelers very well could have the heir apparent to former legendary quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who called it a career earlier this year. Pittsburgh selected quarterback Kenny Pickett with the 20th overall selection in this year's 2022 NFL Draft, and he's looked every bit as good as advertised. 

Steelers fans were given a first hand demonstration of Pickett's skills during their exhibition opener against the Seattle Seahawks, finishing 13 for 15 with 95 yards and two touchdowns. Of course, his night was capped by connecting with Tyler Vaughns in the end zone for the game winning touchdown as time ticked off the clock. 

And while fans have every right to feel encouraged, one notable former NFL general manager is asking fans to pump the breaks a bit. According to Rick Spielman, there wasn't something overtly special about Pickett's performance given the fact that it was against players who won't be in the NFL this season. 

"The thing that was encouraging was that when the bright lights came on, and that's his home stadium where he played all his college games, he seemed to rise to the occasion, so that was a good sign. And then at the end of the game, for him to take them down for a game-winning drive against the Seattle Seahawks that night was great." 

So, there's a lot of things from a front office standpoint, from a head coaching standpoint to the coaching staff standpoint to say, 'Let's slow it down here a little bit.' That was against Seattle's twos and threes. And a lot of those guys probably aren't going to be on the team two or three weeks from now, but it shows that there's a bright future ahead of him. And it'll be interesting to see how much he can progress through the rest of this preseason."