Normally unflappable no matter the game’s intensity, Kenny Pickett was on the phone Thursday night, bent over, hiding his face, his emotions now in charge.
He had been drafted into the NFL. In the first round.
But by whom?
Pat Narduzzi, whose own emotions were starting to spill over, looked up at the TV at the Loch Arbour, N.J., restaurant that was filled with Pickett’s family and friends.
From the man who was standing with his quarterback when the quarterback’s life changed forever: “It was wild.” pic.twitter.com/E8pFJMxwQt
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) April 29, 2022
The New Orleans Saints, picking one slot ahead of the Steelers at No. 19, were on the clock.
“OK, it’s the Saints, right?” Narduzzi presumed. “I never looked back up at the TV.
“We’re all hootin’ and hollerin’. We’re ecstatic.
“Then, my phone rings at 10:12 p.m. It’s coach (Mike) Tomlin. Why is coach Tomlin calling me?”
Narduzzi answered the call.
“Hey, do you see who’s got him?” Tomlin asked Narduzzi.
“I said, ‘Yeah, the Saints. You’re one off.’
He said, ‘No, we got him (at No. 20).’”
As if he needed more validation, Narduzzi was relieved when he saw Pickett don a Steelers baseball cap. He had been fooled because the telecast didn’t keep up with real time.
“It was wild,” Narduzzi said.
In his long career, Pitt’s coach has seen many of his players get drafted in the first round. But Pickett was the first since Narduzzi assumed control of the Pitt program in 2015, and the highest any Panthers quarterback had been drafted, seven slots before Dan Marino in 1983.
“It was probably as emotional (for me) as it was for Kenny, to be honest with you,” the coach said Friday, back in Pittsburgh and retelling the story for reporters.
“To have one (drafted in the first round) and be there with him at the same time was emotional. We were engulfed in everything.
“It’s an emotional moment for them. It’s intense. It’s not easy for a coach.
“Usually, I’m sitting on my couch and I’m (saying), ‘When is he going to get picked,’ whether it’s James Conner, Nathan Peterman, on and on, Avonte Maddox, all the guys? As a coach, you agonize with them.
“Being there and looking down at him, holding onto that phone and having white knuckles. Wow, this is crazy stuff.”
The next question to be answered in the coming months is when will the Steelers turn their offense over to the 20th overall choice in the draft. In the NFL, players selected that high are asked to play early.
Narduzzi said that’s a difficult question to answer.
“There’s only one guy up above who knows what that plan is and maybe a guy next door,” he said. “That’s not for me to decide.
“Could a year (watching and learning) help everybody? I think every freshman who comes into college, a year helps everybody. Every year, you get older, you’re going to be a better football player.
“Would sitting out a year help? Yeah, but that’s not what his plan is. I can tell you that right now. He wants to come and compete right now. He’s still mad I didn’t play him his freshman year every game.
“That’s just his makeup. You want a guy who wants to go play now.”
Playing in a pro-style offense, Pickett completed 1,045 passes in five seasons at Pitt.
“He’s ready, as far as what he’s been coached to do, how he can read coverages. He’s been trained properly,” Narduzzi said.
There will be pressure to live up to his lofty senior season at Pitt when he helped win the ACC championship and was a Heisman finalist.
“I think the pressure is always going to be there,” Narduzzi said, “but it will all be good pressure because he’s a competitor and he wants to compete.
“You think about it. This is what he dreamed about his entire life, and it’s coming true and he’s going to be right here in a place he’s familiar with.
“You see him in the locker room after a loss, after a win. He’s an emotional guy, but not on the field. It’s business on the field. That last night was life, life-changing.”
