Anyone who follows Kenny Pickett on social media knows what the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback has been up to this offseason. While he’s had a little downtime, Pittsburgh’s quarterback has been largely working on his craft as he prepares for his second NFL season.
The first quarterback selected in last year’s NFL Draft, Pickett is driven to build off of what was a successful rookie season. Along with working on his individual game, Pickett got time in with several of his offensive teammates during a recent trip to Florida.
“I was planning on taking a lot more time off, but I’ve never taken a lot of time off,” Pickett said, via the team’s website. “I took a couple of days off, and I wasn’t acting myself, and my fiancée Amy was like, you’ve got to get back to training.
“I’m just happy doing this. I genuinely like doing it. I like being here. In order to be great you have to have a love for the game. I want to be one of the best. I know what I have to do and there’s a lot of things that we need to do as a team to get us to our goals. I feel like it all starts with me and my play. I’ve got to be the guy that takes us there. I’m ready to take it on.”
Pickett nearly helped lead the Steelers to the playoffs last year after after a 2-6 start. The former Pitt Panthers standout shared what making the playoffs would have meant for him and his teammates had Pittsburgh qualified for the tournament.
“I don’t even think it’s just about my learning curve,” Pickett said shortly after the team’s season-ending win over the Browns. “I think it’s about playing for a championship. That’s what it’s all about.
“We would have had an opportunity if we had that chance. When you don’t take care of your own business, you don’t control your own destiny.”
Pickett and his teammates kept the faith until the very end. Despite the slow start, Pickett and Co. managed to avoid becoming Pittsburgh’s first team to finish with a losing record in 19 years. In the process, Pittsburgh saw significant growth from their rookie quarterback, who won his last five starts in which he played more than two possessions. Two of Pickett’s three starts featured game-winning touchdown passes in the game’s final minute.
“It’s big,” Pickett said of his development this past season. “I felt like the offense started to become my own the more I was playing in it, taking real ownership of it instead of just kind of…
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