Steelers legend thinks QB Kenny Pickett can be special

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett is a player to watch who could really jump off the page in his second season in the NFL.

There's, of course, the natural learning curve rookie quarterbacks go through. It's reasonable to expect Pickett will improve in 2023 based on the fact that he has another offseason of growth under his belt alone.

Legendary Steelers running back Jerome Bettis thinks there's a bit more there, though. In fact, watching Pickett last season, Bettis sees the makings of a star.

“I like him. Because we saw the last four weeks of the season his development and he started to go out and win football games,” Bettis recently told Colin Cowherd (h/t Heavy.). “And that’s a hard thing to do when the NFL for a quarterback, a young quarterback, rookie quarterback, to go out in the last drive of the game to drive your team down to, to a winning touchdown or a winning field goal. And he did it, I think four times at the end of the year.”

To Bettis' point, despite finishing third in the AFC North, the Steelers did win their last three games of the season with Pickett at quarterback. He threw for three touchdowns with one interception in that stretch, leading the Steelers to fourth-quarter comebacks against the Las Vegas Raiders and Baltimore Ravens.

Pickett finished his rookie season with 2,404 yards and seven touchdowns with nine interceptions. He had an average quarterback rating of 51.5 and completed 63% of his passes.

Bettis obviously thinks a much better season is on the horizon for Pickett, though.

"You gotta be special to do that,” Bettis told Cowherd. “That’s not something that just is in the handbook that says, 'Hey, we do this. We do'. You’ve gotta be special and make those plays. And he made them.”