The Pittsburgh Steelers are moving forward in their quarterback search. But to make the best decision for the future, understanding past mistakes is key. On Wednesday, CBS Sports\u2019 Aditi Kinkhabwala shared insight into where things went wrong in Pittsburgh\u2019s drafting of QB Kenny Pickett in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just talking to someone who used to work with the Steelers, and he said to me, \u2018Well, they didn\u2019t wanna make the same mistake that they made with Marino,\u201d she told 93.7 The Fan\u2019s Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Writing about Pickett\u2019s failure in Pittsburgh is well-documented and, in many ways, no longer interesting. Kinkhabwala\u2019s comment was made in passing but is notable coming from someone who used to work for the Steelers, though that individual\u2019s role is unclear. For all we know, he could\u2019ve been selling hot dogs. And it is likely that person\u2019s opinion, as opposed to an ironclad fact straight from former GM Kevin Colbert.<\/p>\n Still, the parallels are easy to understand. One of Pittsburgh\u2019s greatest draft blunders was bypassing Pitt\u2019s own Dan Marino in the 1983 NFL Draft. On the board when the Steelers selected 21st overall, the team opted to draft Texas Tech DT Gabe Rivera instead. Rivera would be paralyzed in a drunk driving accident<\/a> as a rookie and never play again. Marino became a Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh may not have wanted to repeat history. When Pickett fell to the Steelers at No. 20 in 2022, the team took the hometown kid. Pickett wasn\u2019t the right guy, though Kinkhabwala believes the organization did him no favors.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wasn\u2019t set up to succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat was going on in the building was not going to allow for pretty much any quarterback to succeed with what the offensive coordinator situation was. With the way the wide receivers were. With what the offensive line was.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s not wrong. Pittsburgh had little around Pickett and paired him with OC Matt Canada. Not just the worst in Steelers\u2019 history, but arguably one of the worst offensive coordinators in the NFL\u2019s modern era. But two things can be true. Pickett didn\u2019t have the talent, and Pittsburgh didn\u2019t have the system. Pickett\u2019s been nothing more than a journeyman backup since being traded and now sits behind Bryce Young in Carolina.<\/a> The Steelers are still searching for a long-term answer.<\/p>\n Holding the 21st pick in 2026, just as the team did in 1983, Pittsburgh is unlikely to select a first-round quarterback. That conversation may begin in the third round with a prototypical build player like Miami (FL)\u2019s Carson Beck or North Dakota State\u2019s Cole Payton, while Will Howard should throw inside a stadium for the first time in his career. Whoever the long-term option is can\u2019t be made for sentimental or regional reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers are moving forward in their quarterback search. But to make the best decision for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[3791,221035,204431,1827,349,1321,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-559938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-93-7-the-fan","9":"tag-aditi-kinkhabwala","10":"tag-dan-marino","11":"tag-kenny-pickett","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}