Kenny Pickett Scouting Report

What exactly is the hate against Pitt QB Kenny Pickett? Small hands? After that…a lot of hemming and hawing about low upside, yadda yadda yadda. It sounds like typical pre-draft hate for a highly rated prospect.

Looking at his film, you can see Pickett dropping in dimes on long passes (beyond 20 yards and even as long as 50 yards). So he can’t toss it 80 yards? How many times in NFL history have you seen a QB throw the ball 80 yards (in the air) during a game? This is a b.s. scouting measure, which we will walk past easily, knowing the overwhelming majority of throws can be made by Pickett.

Throwing mechanics? Check. Pickett throws a nice tight spiral, easily catchable. (NOTE: This can be ruined by bad QB coaches in the NFL.)

Pocket presence? Check. Pickett looks comfortable in the pocket, even when pressure is coming. He shows the ability to scramble for more time for his receivers to get open, or even just scramble for yards.

Speaking of scrambling, Pickett pulled a play I have never seen a QB successfully do. Granted, this was against Wake Forest so…Pickett was running and faked a slide! The entire defense stopped, and Pickett ran in for a td!

By the way, I compared Matt Corral to Dan Marino in a previous post. Pickett actually broke Marino’s td record at Pitt. That leads me to my next point: Pickett is good in the red zone. With nice zip on his passes, and his ability to read tight defenses, he shouldn’t have too much trouble at the NFL level.

Finally, the level of competition faced by Pickett wasn’t bad, including a few SEC teams like Tennessee. He dominated inferior opponents like he should have.

Overall, if Matt Corral has the highest ceiling in this QB class, Pickett is the safest QB by far (READ: high floor value). I have heard the comparison of Pickett to Derek Carr or Kirk Cousins, both very effective NFL QB’s. The disclaimer of NFL landing spot applies here, but hypothetically put Pickett on the LA Rams and he wins a Super Bowl. In other words, surround Pickett with talent and he can be a successful fantasy stud.

P.S. Watch out for Pickett’s receiver Jordan Addison in next year’s draft. That kid is really good! This is not a knock on Pickett, who used all his receivers well. But when he hit Addison, that kid could make a lot happen after the catch.