What You Need to Know:

• Pickett spent 4 years as the Pitt starter after appearing in just 4 games as a true freshman. (The COVID year – 2020 – added a year of eligibility.)
• He spent most of his time compiling bottom-shelf stats, including just 38 TDs over his first 3 seasons. Pickett exploded as a 5th-year senior, though. He racked up 4,319 yards and 42 TD passes vs. just 7 INTs.
• Pickett added solid rushing production, primarily in the TD category: 13 scores over his final 2 seasons.
• He then ran a 72nd-percentile 40-yard dash time at the Scouting Combine.
• His Pro Football Focus passing grade in 2021 leaped vs. the rest of his college seasons

• Pickett’s 9.2-yard career average depth of target in college beats Ben Roethlisberger’s 2021 average by 2.1. If he wins the starting job, he would find a WR corps capable of leveraging deeper targets.
• He’ll battle Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph in training camp and preseason.
• Since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002, there have been 64 QBs drafted in Round 1. The 63 taken before this year averaged Week 7 of their rookie season for Start #1, with a median of Week 4.
• The Steelers’ initial “unofficial” depth chart has rookie QB Kenny Pickett 3rd behind Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Historically, we like QBs who bring a lot of starting experience into the league. But it’s alarming that Pickett looked so different as a 5th-year senior vs. the rest of his college career – both statistically and in other performance indicators. His battle with Mitchell Trubisky (we’ll unofficially throw Mason Rudolph out) doesn’t matter much for fantasy football. Historically, Pickett is likely to step in at some point this year – even if just as an injury fill-in. If he does hit the field, the rookie’s outlook will probably be similar to Trubisky’s. Neither should be counted on as a starter in a 1-QB fantasy league. But each will have weekly upside by virtue of his mobility and talented pass-catching corps.