Kenny Pickett believes his year with the Eagles showed him 'how it's supposed to be done.' (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is an analyst on the Cleveland Browns for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Leftover takeaways from Browns OTA practice open to media …
Browns fans may have a jaded opinion of Kenny Pickett because of his inauspicious two seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and for two other reasons:
1. He’s not Joe Flacco.
2. He’s not Shedeur Sanders.
Yes, Pickett enters the Browns’ quarterback competition with probably the least amount of fan love. He’s even behind third-round rookie and Heisman Trophy finalist Dillon Gabriel, who suffers simply because he was drafted 50 notches ahead of the uber-popular Sanders (How dare he!)
But if you wipe away pre-conceived notions about Pickett, you might understand what attracted the Browns to him.
The 20th overall pick of the 2022 draft is young (26) and strapping (6-3 and 220 pounds), has won games (14-10 as a Steelers starter), has been knocked down (traded by Pittsburgh), and has been deprogrammed from the dysfunctional Steelers’ offense in one year as Jalen Hurts' backup QB with the Super Bowl champion Eagles. Pickett arrives with the necessary chip on his shoulder to aspire to the NFL reclamation success stories of Geno Smith and Sam Darnold.
Ultimately, Pickett’s affordability ($2.62 million salary) made it a no-brainer for GM Andrew Berry to trade for him.
Thus it should be no surprise why Pickett received more reps than any of the four quarterbacks in an OTA practice witnessed by media this week. He is regarded by some (not me) as the favorite to win the starting job.
“I’m really excited about what Kenny brings to the team,” coach Kevin Stefanski said after Wednesday’s OTA session. “He’s a guy that works extremely hard at his craft. I love the way he thinks about the game. He’s very, very tough. So, he’s doing a nice job. As you can imagine, with quarterbacks or any position, we’re throwing a lot at these guys, and I think he’s handling it really well.”
A neutral observer might say that Pickett was a victim of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s total lack of offensive acumen. Under since-fired coordinator Matt Canada, Pickett was confined by an abysmal offensive system and a putrid offensive line that has since been substantially upgraded.
Although some might attribute Pickett’s 14-10 record to Tomlin’s defense, if you look closer you can find six fourth-quarter comeback drives among Pickett’s 14 victories, including two in two seasons against the vaunted Ravens. Pickett was 2-1 against the Browns.
“I felt like late in games, I found ways to win games, which was, you know, always good to see,” he said.
To his credit, Pickett did not throw anyone from the Steelers under the bus when discussing how his career has careened after being drafted in the first round. But his comments about his one season with the Eagles told all you needed to know.
“I’m extremely grateful for my time in Philly,” Pickett said. “I think I was just shown how it’s supposed to be done, really, from the top down. So when you get a chance to see what it’s supposed to look like and how it should look on a day-to-day basis, not just on Sundays, I think it’ll pay dividends for me in the future.”
Pickett is in the last year of his rookie contract. The assumption is if he balls out, he’ll out-price himself from returning to the Browns because of their ongoing salary cap commitments to Deshaun Watson. But Pickett said something interesting in his first media session wearing a Browns uniform.
“You have to be in a system for a couple years to really grow,” Pickett said. “I’m hoping I can have that here, where you just build a foundation with something and grow with it.”
Flacco, the truth-speaker
Flacco has taken more grief than anybody since Brian Hoyer for not embracing the “mentor” role. His comments on this subject may make him more popular with fans and teammates than he already is.
“It’s a good question to bait somebody into answering, and no matter how they answer, it kind of makes the guy that’s answering it look bad,” he said. “If I say I don’t want to be a mentor, I look bad. If I say I do want to be a mentor, then I look like an idiot that doesn’t care about being good and playing football. So it’s one of those questions that no matter what I say, you guys can write what you want to write about it.
“And there’s a lot of questions like that and that’s why you end up having to try to avoid them. I tend to try to be honest, and I’ve said I’m not a mentor. I play football. And in a quarterback room, there’s been already a ton of times where there’s learning experiences, and I have a lot of experience, and I can talk on things, and hopefully they listen, but it’s not necessarily my job to make sure they listen to me. And, you know, hey, hopefully you have a really good relationship with the guys that are in the room, and you naturally want to do that.”
Pressed on the issue, Flacco added, “I see myself as a guy that can play in this league. So if your main focus was just like, ‘Hey, I’m going to get you ready,’ you’re just not taking care of business. The best way to be a mentor, honestly, is to show people how you go to work and, like I said, hope that they pick up on that stuff, but not necessarily force them to pick up on the things that you do.”
You would think Gabriel and Sanders would benefit so much from watching how Flacco does his job. But Pickett already has picked up on Flacco’s reluctant mentoring.
“It’s like he’s not a coach," Pickett said. "I don’t want anyone to say that, but it’s like having another coach when a guy that’s played that much football, you could bounce ideas off of.
"You know, ask him what he saw, how he would read certain things earlier in his career. There’s just so many things, small things that you can learn. Just having that normal, open dialogue that we have in the quarterback room.”
The reality of virtual reality
At some point – probably the first week of preseason games -- the reps given to Gabriel and Sanders will taper off. Stefanski said the rookies can make up for lost physical reps by repping the scripted practice plays via virtual reality technology, which is becoming popular among the new generation of quarterbacks (see: Jayden Daniels).
Virtual reality is a training method totally foreign to old-school QBs Flacco and Pickett.
“So I’ve been around some VR,” Flacco said. I tend to like sitting in the room and watching it on film.
“I think when you talk to different individuals, everybody has a little bit of a different experience. And if you feel like you’re getting help from it, it’s a nice way to get extra reps. I’ve never been one of those guys to kind of do it, but if that’s what you like, then there’s probably a lot of value in it.”
Pickett said, “I haven’t tried it yet. I may go try it. Yeah, I’m definitely interested to try it. I’m just a big tape guy. I've just always done it for a long time now, so I’m very comfortable there. But yeah, open to try it.”