A memory of a lifetime for Pickett

There are so many interviews you do at the combine. There are differences in teams, differences in coaches, personalities, informal versus formal. Some coaches and teams want to get to know you, some coaches and teams put you on the board or put you through a film session. There’s a lot of things that go into it. You just want to be as prepared as you can be for whatever they throw you.

The only interview I had with the Steelers at the combine was with Coach (Mike) Sullivan. I just talked with Coach Sully in an informal setting and that interview was more getting to know me as a person. I think they were pretty familiar with myself from a football standpoint. I just didn’t have a lot of contact with the coaches. With the Steelers I only had that one interview with Coach Sully at the combine. They kept it real low key. I had a feeling they liked me, but I couldn’t tell by the way I was going through the process of the interviews and everything. It was funny how it all played out.

After the combine it was preparing for my pro day. The pro day at Pitt I would say was maybe a little bit more relaxed than the combine just because it’s a one day thing. You scripted the routes that you’re throwing. You’ve been training with the receivers for a week or two weeks to get ready and have the timing that you need on certain things. It’s definitely cool to have your family there watching you perform. It was a special day. I had my teammates there as well. Everyone stayed to watch me throw, which was great. And you see a lot of old friends and old coaches and to able to go out there and perform in front of everybody for one more time, that was really cool.

It’s obviously a big piece of the process and you don’t want to undermine how important it is, but at the same time I was having throwing sessions with those guys since I first got to Pitt. You’ve been doing it for so long with them it was second nature. You are just doing it in front of a bigger audience. It was definitely…