Former Raven Bart Scott Lays Into Kenny Pickett: ‘He Stinks’

Scott played for the Ravens from 2002 to 2008, so he dealt with some pretty mediocre quarterbacks. Steve McNair played for Baltimore in the backend of his career until Joe Flacco arrived in 2008. They were both decent, better than the likes of Jeff Blake, Kyle Boller and Anthony Wright, but definitely not to the caliber of future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger. Lamar Jackson was the league MVP in 2019 and is the most dynamic quarterback in the NFL, but he needs rack up more accomplishments and success in the playoffs in order to be a Hall of Famer.

In August, Scott said that he does not believe the Steelers will make the playoffs, in large part because he does not believe Pickett can be the quarterback to lead them there.

“I don’t know if they get into the playoffs, just because I think the other teams are ahead in the process and I think the weak link will eventually be the quarterback,” Scott said. “But listen, they’re going to be right there. We know Mike Tomlin doesn’t have losing seasons. We know if they’re going to do that, it’s because Pickett is a big part of their success.”

Through four games, Scott has been right on Pickett as he’s struggled mightily. He’s completing just 60.6% of his passes, with four touchdowns, four interceptions and a 76.3 passer rating. He has the worst success rate in the NFL.

The Ravens’ defense has allowed a touchdown on just 3 of 48 drives this season (6.3%). They’re allowing just 14.5 points per game, which is tied for third-best in the NFL. On paper, Baltimore has a favorable matchup against a Steelers’ offense that’s averaging just 12.o points per game (if you takeaway the defensive scores by Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt in Week 2) and leads the league in three-and-outs.

Clark couldn’t bring himself to pick the Steelers because of his lack of faith in the team’s offense.

“This feels like an (0-4) team because when you look at them winning against the Cleveland Browns, you had to get two defensive scores to even be in that game,” Clark said. “You can’t produce that every week. If you’re hanging your hat on defnse, you go back to last week against the Houston Texans, where C.J. Stroud basically did every Oak Town, passed over 300 yards. … We couldn’t stop the kid from Cali. Now you’re going against Lamar Jackson? Lamar Jackson, whose accuracy was off the charts in Cleveland against one of the best defenses in the entire league, and you have a quarterback who is not only injured, not only banged up, but when he has been 100%, he’s nothing to write home about?

“When Mike Tomlin said there would be changes, I thought there would be changes we could see. I will hold my breath, I will hold my water, and hope that when they walk into the stadium it’s different. But I don’t know how different it can be. There’s no other play-caller on that team. There’s no other play-caller on that staff. And so we’ll probably see the same thing.”

The Steelers-Ravens rivalry doesn’t have the same intensity as it did when Scott and Clark played in the 2000s. But Scott ripping Pickett might provide a little more juice to the game.