Mark Madden: After strong NFL Draft, pressure for Steelers' success falls on Kenny Pickett

The Pittsburgh Steelers had an excellent draft. It’s not quite 1974 when they drafted four Hall of Famers. But it was clinical. It filled need after need.

It didn’t fill every need. The Steelers are weak at inside linebacker. They need a center better than Mason Cole to have the offensive line they want.

But the Steelers are better, even if only most of these draft picks turn out as hoped.

The question is, how much better?

They won’t win the AFC North in 2023 and probably not for the next 10 years of Joe Burrow.

They’re not yet ready to win a playoff game because that almost certainly means beating one of the AFC’s elite quarterbacks.

Unless the NFL recedes from tech to medieval, defense and running the football isn’t it. The Steelers can’t wish otherwise into existence. You must strike quickly and outscore.

But the Steelers have built a foundation for maybe. Be grateful because maybe is all Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, etc. are going to give you.

Unless Kenny Pickett takes more.

Now, more than ever, what happens is up to Pickett. He must stand and deliver.

Pickett won’t be Burrow. But the closer he gets, the closer the Steelers get.

This is when the Pickett brigade leaps to its feet and yells, “IT’S NOT ALL ON KENNY!” and cites, of course, the inadequacies of offensive coordinator Matt Canada and various other areas, real or perceived, where Pickett isn’t put in optimum position to succeed.

Except it is all on Pickett. The NFL is based on quarterbacking.

Quick, name Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator. You can’t. That’s because it doesn’t matter who it is. (It’s Brian Callahan.)

Canada couldn’t stop Burrow from being Burrow.

Pickett’s success is up to Pickett.

He’s got a much-improved offensive line. He’s got a solid receiving corps that has what seems a well-defined division of duty. He’s got a first-round pick at running back.

If the Steelers are to have a team that wins playoff games, Pickett must be one of the NFL’s top 10 quarterbacks. That won’t be easy. But the potential exists.

Every team’s success is up to the quarterback. Pickett is entering that phase. Patience might be required, like it was with the New York Giants’ Daniel Jones.

Any pressure Pickett absorbs will have to be self-applied. Because there’s never been a more coddled athlete in Pittsburgh sports history. That goes for the fans and, to a slightly lesser extent, the media.

When Pickett succeeds, it’s his doing. When he fails, it’s somebody else’s fault. The stats don’t matter unless they’re good. To those who carry Pickett’s water, his entire rookie year boiled down to two game-winning fourth-quarter drives late in a season where the Steelers missed the playoffs.

Pickett never threw more than one touchdown pass in a game. He finished 33rd in passer rating, 30th in yards per game.

Yet, somehow, he’s been assigned the “it” factor.

That’s fine. Root, root, root for the home team — and the home quarterback.

But perhaps Pickett would don his big-boy pants a bit quicker if it felt required. Strike a fair balance between patient and demanding.

Patience won’t just be required with Pickett. This draft, good as it was, didn’t fix everything.

The Steelers look likely to win nine to 10 games. Their ceiling seems a quick first-round slaughter at the hands of Mahomes, Burrow or Allen.

The best the Steelers can hope for is to get the top-seeded wild card, then play Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence in the wild-card round. That’s winnable. But Pickett isn’t Lawrence.

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