Kenny Pickett is coming off an impressive season and an overall solid career in Pittsburgh. He was projected to be the Steelers' top choice at QB in the NFL Draft and, as predicted, they took him with the 20th pick.
Pickett was touted as one of the most NFL-ready QBs in the nation. However, his small hands (8.625 inches) raised plenty of red flags among scouts and prompted countless jokes on social media.
Then again, that wasn't enough to scare away Steelers GM Kevin Colbert. Per him, his scouts, and the team personnel, it was clear that Pickett had what it take to thrive in Pittsburgh, regardless of the size of his hands.
Steelers GM Says Kenny Pickett Was The Most Prepared QB In The Draft
“Honestly, I never paid attention to that,” Colbert said. “We look at the results. We watch Kenny play in our environment. Can he throw the football? Absolutely. Did he have an excessive fumble rate? No, he didn’t. We just judge it on how he played. He's the most prepared [QB] coming out."
Mike Tomlin Doesn't Care About Pickett's Hand Size
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had a pretty similar take about his rookie QB. They've already seen him play at Heinz Field, he doesn't turn the ball over a lot, and he's proven that he can be successful there. So, what's not to like?
“I potentially was capable of buying into that if I didn’t watch him play college football in Pittsburgh and deal with the elements that come with playing in this environment,” Tomlin said on The Rich Eisen Show.
“So you can buy into the hand size thing or you can just look at how he performed in a variety of conditions, and we have those conditions in Pittsburgh," Tomlin added. "So there was very little speculation from our perspective about how he might handle the ball in inclement weather, wet days, etc. They played North Carolina on a Thursday night, I went to the game, it was raining pretty good that night and he had no issues.”
Pickett has the smallest hands among QBs in the NFL, trailing Saints' Taysom Hill (8.7 inches). He's far below the league average of 9.7 inches, but he can sure throw the hell out of the football, and that's all that matters.
