Kenny Pickett is in the same position as any injured starting quarterback: He wants to play. Only it’s not up to him.
Per TribLive’s Chris Adamski, Pickett feels good but knows the decision on whether or when he can go is up to the medical staff and coaches.
“I always try to push myself, but it’s the trainers, it’s the coaches,” Pickett said on Wednesday. “It’s how they see me moving and how they want to go about it.”
Mike Tomlin hasn’t disclosed if Pickett is medically cleared from ankle surgery he underwent three weeks ago. He was limited in his return to practice last week, and it’s the same approach this week.
Though he all but named Mason Rudolph the starter, Tomlin was diplomatic about the quarterback situation as they prepare for the Seahawks.
“We’re in the same position with Kenny (Pickett) as we were last week,” he said in his Tuesday press conference. “We’ll give him a few reps and kind of see where that leads us. But just as I said a week ago, in this setting, Mason Rudolph was scheduled to be the quarterback for the week, and we’ll see where Kenny (Pickett) is. We have the same mentality as we start this week.”
Rudolph played well against a 27th-ranked Bengals defense, just as Pickett did a few games prior. Only this time, Pittsburgh put up the most points they have all season.
“We have a great deal more comfort because of what we’ve seen in-stadium from Mason Rudolph, and that helps us, but we still really are in the same posture. He’s got the ball to start the week, and we’ll see where Kenny (Pickett) is from a mobility perspective and then kind of go from there and plan day-by-day based on the things that we see from that perspective.”
What everyone is most interested in seeing is how Rudolph performs against the 20th-ranked Seahawks’ defense and whether the Steelers opt to roll with him for the season’s final battle in Baltimore.
Pittsburgh has lost six of the last seven games in Seattle.
Kenny Pickett on the relationships in the Steelers QB room pic.twitter.com/1FXfvtdvIs
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 27, 2023
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