The Pittsburgh Steelers got their hometown guy when they drafted Kenny Pickett out of Pittsburgh University. They got to see him work week in and week out, and he knew Heinz Field(it’ll never be Acrisure Stadium) like the back of his hand.
Pickett was clearly their best QB in the preseason, but Mike Tomlin wasn’t confident starting him in Week One. All that changed last week when Mitch Trubisky failed to move the chains vs. the New York Jets.
So, now that the Pickett era is officially underway, Steelers star Chase Claypool wanted to shut down the doubters by affirming his confidence in his new QB. Also, it’s not like they haven’t had multiple reps with him under center already.
NFL News: Chase Claypool Says Steelers Aren’t Starting From Behind With Kenny Pickett
“That’s what we’ve been working on in between periods,” Claypool told Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “During special teams, we tried to spot up, run through some routes, or just talk through some routes — see what we’re both thinking and then meet in the middle and try to get that timing down as fast as possible.”
“Some of us have had a pretty good amount of reps with him anyway, just because that’s how we kind of rotated the quarterbacks early on in camp,” Claypool added. “So, I think we’re not starting from behind too much or anything.”
Pickett Is Confident Ahead Of His First Career Start
Pickett knows not many people are confident in the Steelers this season. However, that hasn’t taken a toll on his confidence, and he’s ready to silence his doubters and prove that he’s NFL material:
“Everybody else thinks we’re underdogs. We don’t,” Pickett said, as quoted by ProFootballTalk. “We’re going to go in there with some confidence. We know how great we can be when we’re detailed and we execute at a high level. That’s something we need to take care of during the week or we won’t have a shot.”
“It’s the details, the little things, guys running at the right depth, I’ve got to be on time, give them a great ball and they’ll make the plays,” the QB added. “The line has been doing a great job all year, so I have a ton of confidence in those guys. It’s everyone doing their 1/11th and we’ll be OK.”
Unfortunately for him, the Steelers will be in for a tough matchup in his first career start, as they’ll travel to a hostile environment for a clash with the Buffalo Bills’ top-ranked defensive unit.