Bill Cowher worried about rattling the confidence of QB Kenny Pickett
Sunday was a rough one for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was especially rough for rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, who took an absolute beating by the aggressive Philadelphia Eagles defense. Pickett was sacked six times and hit 11 on the way to the Steelers 35-13 blowout loss.
After the game, former Steelers head coach and current NFL studio analyst Bill Cowher spoke at length about his concerns with how the Steelers are handling Pickett and worries that by throwing him into an overly complicated offense completely devoid of a run game is going to damage his confidence going forward.
"You're transitioning into a new quarterback, ok? And right now, I get worried about his confidence, because I've seen this happen to other quarterbacks right now," he said. "Take the ball out of his hands, don't ask him to do as much as you're asking him to do. I know we have these receivers and everything else. It's not about the receivers, it's about a philosophy on offense that says, listen, what's the best part of your team? It's going to be your defensive side, but that gets worn down after a period of time. There's no margin of error there.
"You have to somehow shorten the game with this quarterback and it goes back to run the ball and put him back under center. ... You're 2-6, I understand it's a period of transition. What's in the best interest to develop the quarterback, who's your quarterback of the future without destroying his confidence?"
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Cowher is uniquely qualified to speak on this as he was the Steelers head coach when Ben Roethlisberger took over the starting quarterback job as a rookie in 2004. The difference being Roethlisberger was inheriting a team with a dominant rushing attack and the best defense in the league. Roethlisberger was shielded from much of what Pickett is going through and it is impossible to know if the rookie goes through nine more games how it will impact his development long-term.