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After the 2022 season came to an end, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin described Kenny Pickett as “our QB1,” stopping short of labeling him as the organization’s “franchise quarterback.” But the 2022 1st-round pick is working hard to take his game to that next level. On April 20, 2023, Pickett’s personal quarterback coach Tony Racioppi appeared on the Morning Show of 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh and ticked off all the reasons he expects to see a quantum leap in terms of the 2nd-year quarterback’s play.
Tony Racioppi Does ‘a Peyton Manning Thing’ With Kenny Pickett
“I see a huge jump for him,” began Racioppi. “‘A’ because he’s gotten better, and ‘B,’ now he gets an entire offseason. He gets an entire offseason of throwing with the starters and the key 2s — understanding the system and understanding what’s asked of him. And now he’s got his routine down.”
Indeed, Pickett opened his rookie season as the backup behind Mitch Trubisky, but supplanted the former No. 2 overall pick halfway through a Week 4 loss against the New York Jets. That said, he had little opportunity to work with the team’s 1st-stringers before taking over the starting job. Now he’s the clear-cut starter, and has spent time in Florida working with some of his wide receivers — including Diontae Johnson, George Pickens, Steven Sims and Gunner Olszewski.
Meanwhile, Racioppi also sat down with Pickett to review all of his interceptions and incomplete passes from last season, of which there were 144 of the former and nine of the later.
“What we did — and this is a Peyton Manning thing and obviously some other guys — you go through all your misses and why. Were they decisions or were they fundamentals?”
In addition, Racioppi said that Pickett also got feedback from Coach Tomlin — as well as offensive coordinator Matt Canada and Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan — about the areas of his game that they feel need improvement going forward.
Kenny Pickett: ‘Big Ken’?
Finally, Racioppi confirmed that Pickett has put on weight in an effort to more readily absorb hits from NFL defenders and avoid the concussions — a pair of them — that caused him to miss playing time last season.
Asked to confirm the weight gain that recent photos seem to indicate, Racioppi said:
“Oh yeah. I’d say he’s like 226 probably right about now. He finished the year probably like 213 — so about 13 pounds. And again, he looks great, it’s not like he went down ate cheeseburgers and sat on his butt. He got after it and he looks absolutely great,” Racioppi said, before opining that Pickett’s ideal playing weight is 225 pounds or thereabouts.
That has prompted some observers to refer to the 6-foot-3 Pickett as “Big Ken,” making reference to the nickname of former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was long known as “Big Ben.”
Racioppi insists that Pickett hasn’t gotten too big for his own good, however.
“As you know, It’s finding the right balance between putting on size and being strong to stay healthy through the season, but also at the same time, not get too big that he loses the athleticism which is such a big part of his game,” Racioppi said. “We tried to park it at a certain weight that he felt great physically, but at the same time, he can still move really well and hasn’t lost a step.”
Pickett will be trying to improve on a rookie campaign in which he completed 63% of his passes and won 7 of 12 starts, but threw just seven touchdown passes against nine interceptions. He finished the year with a ‘Duck’ Hodges-like passer rating of just 76.7.
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‘I See a Huge Jump’ for Steelers’ Kenny Pickett: Personal QB Coach