Tim Benz: We've established Kenny Pickett's 'high floor,' how high can his ceiling be?

When it comes to writing a sports column or hosting a sports talk show, there should be no easier topic to formulate a hot take about than the local NFL franchise drafting a first-round quarterback for the first time in 18 years.

So, here’s mine as it relates to the Pittsburgh Steelers drafting Pitt’s Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft: I don’t love it. But I do like it. I applaud the move more than I disapprove of it.

That’s it. There you go.

Yeah. I’m disappointed in me, too. Not exactly hot-takey on the most easily hot-takeable debate in sports.

But my reaction is largely tethered to who Pickett is as a quarterback. Because I tend to agree with the masses on Pickett’s profile entering the NFL after a wildly successful end to his five-year Pitt career.

He’s going to enter the NFL ready to play early. He’s polished, smart and physically capable. Worst-case scenario, he’s going to be average. Best-case scenario, he’s going to be very good, yet probably not great.

As Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, he’s got a “high floor” for sure. Is the “ceiling” high enough to be worthy of the No. 20 pick, though?

I’m less than sure about that.

To be fair, Pickett vastly exceeded what I thought his ceiling was going to be with the Panthers. Maybe he’s got another level in the NFL, too.

When I posed that question to the new draftee Friday, he had an honest response.

“I don’t know,” Pickett admitted. “I feel like when I went back to Pitt, a lot of people were saying, ‘Why is he going back? How much better is he going to get? He’s been there for four years.’ I feel like I continue to improve every offseason just because of how hard I work and obsess over the little things of getting better. There are plenty of areas I can improve. So, I don’t know what my ceiling will be. We’ll have to find out in a few years.”

After his pro day, Pickett did an interview on the NFL Network. Reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala told Pickett that she heard the following names as comps for what Pickett could end up being in the pros: Matt Hasselbeck, Derek Carr, Andy Dalton.

“They’re all great. You’re talking about pros,” Pickett said Friday of that analysis. “That’s why I said, ‘There’s no slight I take for any comparison.’ I just always try to improve. If there’s something I can take from somebody’s game, I’m always going to do that. … You’re always learning. You’re always evolving.”

Those comps to Pickett seem close to me. They also seem pretty consistent with my lack of a spirited emotional reaction to the acquisition of Pickett.

I hear the names Dalton, Hasselbeck and Carr, and I say, “Eh, pretty good. Not great.”

However, while that list may not be eye-popping to Steelers fans, the best of Matt Hasselbeck got him to three Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl. The best of Carr has made three Pro Bowls and MVP consideration before an injury in 2016. The best of Dalton helped lead the often star-crossed Bengals to five straight postseasons.

That wouldn’t be bad at all for Steelers fans. Especially if the Steelers can eventually put a slightly better team around Pickett than those quarterbacks had.

Now, the worst from those guys may be part of the reason why none of them has ever won a Super Bowl, which, as Tomlin often reminds us, is “the standard” for the franchise.

Well, except for the past 13 seasons, of course.

Does Pickett end that drought someday? I wouldn’t rule it out. If his last year at Pitt was more of an awakening of what he can be as opposed to the top level of what he could ever become, Carr, Hasselbeck and Dalton would be flattered to be compared to him, instead of the other way around.

I’m just cautious of assuming his skills are translatable enough to the NFL for that to be the case.

What I’m more sure of is he’s already the best quarterback on the team. I’m more certain that he’s got more room to grow than Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph. The Steelers seem to feel the same way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have drafted him in the first round with Rudolph on an extension and Trubisky just a few weeks into his recently signed two-year contract.

I’m also certain the team had the right mindset to draft who they perceive to be the best quarterback available when they have an opening on their roster.

My more reactionary opinion is about what Pickett’s presence says about the Steelers and their approach to easing out of the Ben Roethlisberger era. To me, it feels as if they are blindly making it up as they go along.

The Steelers QBs better be able to throw passes as hard as the Steelers front office is throwing different solutions at the quarterback problem.

It allowed Big Ben to return after 2020. But for just one more year. They extended Rudolph, but just through ’22. They brought Dwayne Haskins on board in Jan. ’21. Trubisky came to terms on March 14. Haskins got a restricted free agent deal March 17. They drafted Pickett on Thursday.

Given the tragic death of Haskins on April 9, the Steelers still might bring in a fourth quarterback for training camp and even try to trade Rudolph or Trubisky, depending on who that fourth body is.

Whatever the Steelers have been telling us about their plan of succession for Roethlisberger, it has proven to be unclear.

Hopefully, Pickett proves he’s worthy enough that they’ll no longer need to keep trying.