Madden Monday: After enough starts, Kenny Pickett 'ain't the guy' for the Steelers

After getting knocked out of Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, one has to wonder if Kenny Pickett is going to be healthy enough to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans.

But as Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLIVE said in this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, a bigger concern about Pickett has emerged.

“He ain’t the guy,” Madden said of Pickett. “He’s had 20 games now, and he has done almost nothing. He’s had a good quarter now and again — a clutch series now and again. But he ain’t the guy. What’s he proven? You tell me. He is mediocre on a good day, pretty good on a good series.”

Madden says look at the team’s next opposing quarterback as a measuring stick. That would be Tennessee Titans rookie Will Levis. The Kentucky product and former Penn State Nittany Lion made his NFL debut Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons and threw four touchdowns en route to a 28-23 win.

Three went to DeAndre Hopkins.

Hopkins hat trick!

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“Will Levis, in his NFL debut, had a better game than Kenny Pickett has in any of his 20. And if you don’t believe me, look up the stats. They don’t lie,” Madden said.

Indeed, Pickett has never thrown more than two touchdowns in any game. He has exceeded Levis’ 238 yards passing just four times and not once this year. Plus, he has never come close to Levis’ 130.5 passer rating against Atlanta. Pickett’s high was 108.5 against the Las Vegas Raiders earlier this season.

And even before Pickett left the game Sunday, things hadn’t been great for him, going 10 of 16 for just 73 yards (4.6 yards per attempt). He had what could’ve been a pick-six dropped early in the game. He had three of those earlier in the year. Plus, Pickett missed a wide-open Diontae Johnson in the end zone for what would’ve been a touchdown.

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Then again, Johnson had two drops earlier in the game. George Pickens had trouble shaking coverage. And the run game managed a measly 70 yards on 18 carries. Not to mention, 28 of those yards were quarterback scrambles by Pickett and Mitch Trubisky.

Granted, the Steelers were hurt by some pretty lousy officiating. Madden suggests, though, that the refs should be a secondary thought compared to how lousy the Steelers were on both sides of the ball.

“I mean, there’s just so much wrong here. And to act like it boiled down to the officials. You know, like Diontae and whoever else did in the locker room — the fans — they’re doing themselves a disservice by not seeing the team as it really is and seeing today’s game as it really was,” Madden said.

Also, during the podcast, Madden and I address how the Steelers defense showed too many holes as well. We analyze the Penguins’ ragged homestand, and we discuss Pitt’s humiliation in South Bend.