When the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Kenny Pickett with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, many were taken aback. Kevin Colbert, in his final draft as the General Manager of the Steelers, wanted to leave the organization with a quarterback of the future.

After a rocky start to his rookie year, where Pickett sat behind Mitch Trubisky, he was thrust into the starring lineup, going 7-5 in 12 games and building momentum towards his 2023 season, which proved that preseason football isn’t real by any means. By the end of the season, Pickett was benched for Mason Rudolph, and then just a few months later, he was supplanted by Russell Wilson and traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. But if you ask Colbert, Pickett is a success story waiting to happen.

Former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert thinks Kenny Pickett can still be a good starting quarterback

“We projected Kenny to be a start-and-win NFL quarterback, and quite honestly, he lived up to that in his first two seasons with us,” Colbert said on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh last week. “For us, he was 14-10 and trending in the right direction. So that’s what we thought we had in Kenny.”

“Kenny’s a great young man,” he added. “He’s a great competitor. … And I still think at a young age, I still think Kenny can continue to build on what he did with us in those first two seasons.”

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The issue with Kevin Colbert’s statement about Kenny Pickett

Pickett did go 7-5 both seasons in Pittsburgh, but if losses don’t fall solely on quarterbacks, then neither should taking credit for wins. I’ll be the first to admit that Pickett received a raw deal on the way out of Pittsburgh.

But if he was on the Sam Darnold Path per se, I’m not sure he’s on his fifth team in as many years. That’s not to say he can’t be a reclamation project and find his footing again, but to say that Pickett was playing winning football and hitting his stride when the Steelers and three other teams moved on… that feels a little rich.