Kenny Pickett gets his 1st taste of the NFL at Senior Bowl

Still months removed from his first NFL paycheck, Kenny Pickett nonethless is getting his first taste of life as pro quarterback this week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

Four hours of interviews with NFL personnel Monday, followed by full schedule Tuesday that included practice, more interviews and a 10-minute grilling session from reporters who wanted to know about this comparison to Joe Burrow.

That’s how Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy introduced Pickett at the news conference. Did it create too-high expectations for the former Pitt quarterback?

Bring ‘em on, he all but said.

“That’s a heckuva intro. I’m going to have to have Jim intro me like that everywhere I go,” Pickett said.

He was not comparing his level of play to that of the Cincinnati Bengals (soon-to-be Super Bowl) quarterback, but he did note some similarities.

“We both can move around and extend some plays and find guys downfield,” he said. “The game’s definitely slowing down for him. You can tell by the way he’s playing. That’s where I got to a point this season at Pitt.”

Pickett also noted the two young men are not strangers. They were roommates at Peyton Manning’s summer quarterback camp.

“He’s a heckuva of a player. Great guy, great role model to have going into the NFL,” Pickett said of Burrow.

Pickett addressed some of the negative talk swirling about him, including his age (he’ll be 24 before next season) and his hand size (some see them as smaller than what the NFL is seeking in quarterbacks).

Although his pro clock will start later than if he had entered the 2021 NFL Draft, Pickett points to the experience he received by returning to Pitt for a fifth season.

“I take a lot of reps in practice as a starter,” he said. “I don’t like to give up a lot of reps. I make sure I practice fully. The amount of football that I’ve seen I think is a huge positive going into this next chapter.”

Pickett said hand size is the “No. 1 thing in the draft process.”

But he scoffs at any suggestions that he might have trouble handling the ball in wet weather. With rain coming down at Heinz Field two months ago, he threw the decisive touchdown pass to beat North Carolina in overtime.

“The good news is I played in Pittsburgh, and anyone who’s been to Pittsburgh knows it’s not the nicest place to play in October and November. I have experience playing in tough weather,” he said.

After a record-setting career at Pitt, he said he wants to show NFL scouts this week that he can be a consistent performer.

“Everyone knows what kind of season I had,” he said. “It’s a lot different from the previous three years (at Pitt). I want to show that playing at high level for 13 games isn’t kind of a luck thing. You have to be the same guy every single week.”

The possibility of getting drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers also arose during his news conference. When told that Ben Roethlisberger has retired, Pickett smiled and said, “I’ve heard.”

“Pittsburgh is really my second home. The possibility of getting drafted there is unbelievable. That would be kind of a dream. We’ll see what happens.”

He said it was “pretty cool” to be taught by former Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who was Roethlisberger’s quarterbacks coach in his rookie season.

“Things he taught Ben he was teaching me.”

Pickett is clearly eager to get his NFL career underway and start building a resume as an NFL starter.

“I don’t know what I don’t know. I want to learn as much as I can,” he said. “I was always learning every day at Pitt. That’s something I want to take to the NFL.”