Andy Weidl said 'It takes a village to do a draft.' Will it also take a village for Steelers to raise Kenny Pickett?

When Andy Weidl spoke to the Pittsburgh media last week, it was just the second time he had formally done so since becoming the Steelers assistant general manager a year ago.

It happened once in training camp, about two months after he was hired. The second time was last Friday to wrap up the draft.

Then it struck me walking into the press conference: Will there ever be a third time?

After all, if Weidl’s influence on the roster construction of the 2023 club turns out as positive as we are all framing it, might he be running someone else’s draft as their general manager a year from now?

It’s possible. Weidl was a candidate for the Steelers job even as eventual general manager Omar Khan was pitching owner Art Rooney II to include Weidl on the staff — even if Khan himself got the job.

As vice president of player personnel with the Philadelphia Eagles, Weidl obviously had opened eyes across the state. It’s likely his hometown franchise in Pittsburgh wasn’t the only team in the NFL to take notice.

So if the Steelers improve dramatically as a result of some of the moves Weidl and Khan have dialed up, it’s a sure bet the Mt. Lebanon native will draw interest from other teams around the NFL when the inevitable GM firing cycle kicks in come mid-January.

I suppose it’s possible Weidl may not want to go. Maybe the prospect of multiple successful years working in his hometown for the franchise he grew up following may outweigh the allure (and income) of being a GM in another city.

Maybe. But first thing’s first. The moves that Weidl and Khan made this offseason actually have to pay off. One thing that’s clear about America in the Twitter era is that we all have gotten really good at declaring victory before anything really happens.

I mean, a week ago we were all wondering when the Pirates were going to start printing World Series tickets. How’s that looking after they just dropped eight of nine?

Overly gushy rose petals aside, I do understand the enthusiasm for what the Steelers have done during the spring months. Weidl, Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin seemed to attack the offseason with a wise plan and patched over a lot of holes on the roster.

Will that manifest into three or four more wins? Eh, that’s ambitious when you map it out practically. Three more wins would’ve tied the Bengals for the division championship in 2022. Just one more would’ve gotten the Steelers in the playoffs. In fact, depending on who that win was against, it might have gotten them up to the top wild card. That’s how thin the margins are in the AFC.

Which is why one thing Weidl said Friday really piqued my interest. Actually, it’s not directly what he said. But it’s the turn of phrase he used.

“It takes a village to do a draft,” Weidl said. “There’s a lot of people that put a lot of time and effort into this. It was a big collaborative effort.”

And to me it seems like the Steelers’ mentality is that they are creating “a village” to raise a quarterback too.

Because, let’s be honest, we can fawn and preen over the Steelers offseason all we want. Only two things matter above all else when it comes to the club’s success or failure in 2023.

1. Can the Steelers coaching staff successfully design a more potent offense in 2023?

2. Can second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett run it efficiently and effectively?

If the answer to both questions is “yes,” the Steelers will be a wild-card team at least and maybe a division contender. If the answer to either question is “no,” they’ll be in the same borderline playoff purgatory they’ve been in the past few seasons.

Everything else is Black and Gold window dressing.

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So I asked Weidl on Friday, if the goal was to, in fact, build that village around Pickett. And if so, is he now capable of reaching the heights he needs to reach in Year 2?

“We’re excited about Kenny, the way he finished the season,” Weidl said. “One of the things you want to do is take care of a quarterback up front. Not just in the run game, but in the pass protection. Every great passing game starts with protection. You want to protect the quarterback. You want to surround him with weapons. We’re going to do that. We’re going to bring in talent.”

The Steelers did some of that. They upgraded along the offensive line with Broderick Jones, Isaac Seumalo and Nate Herbig. They got two red zone weapons in Darnell Washington and Allen Robinson.

But aside from that, 2023 is still going to be about what offense the Steelers coaches draw up for Pickett and how well he orchestrates it.

Sure, maybe the attention paid on defense to getting the ball back, protecting leads and getting the offense back on the field quickly will help. Acquiring two new starting inside linebackers (Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts), three new defensive linemen of potential consequence (Keeanu Benton, Breiden Fehoko, Armon Watts) and three new chess pieces in the secondary (Joey Porter Jr., Patrick Peterson, Keanu Neal) better accomplish exactly that.

“We’re always going to try to help him out because we believe in him — the quarterback, the person, the leader he is becoming. Any opportunity we have to help him out, we will,” Weidl said of Pickett.

Good. Because even the most optimistic Pickett fan isn’t likely to say that he is ever going to be the kind of QB that can take bit-part players and elevate them into Pro Bowl-worthy pieces as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes have done so often in recent years.

But if that “village” is flourishing by the time this season ends, Weidl’s cottage in it may be up for sale by early winter.

And as bummed out as the Steelers may be as a result, they’ll be grinning ear-to-ear about what Weidl has left behind.