Mark Madden: Nervous, sloppy, unsure, Kenny Pickett isn't ready to be Steelers' starting QB

When Kenny Pickett became the Pittsburgh Steelers’ No. 1 quarterback as of the second half of the Week 4 loss to the visiting New York Jets, it felt permanent.

Pickett’s the guy, his time is now, this is the beginning, you deal with hiccups, but Pickett stays in.

But now, I’m not so sure.

There’s good experience, and there’s bad experience.

Pickett is not absorbing good experience. He has not improved one bit since that game against the Jets. He has not yet played a good game.

Pickett looks nervous, sloppy, unsure, and obviously so on all counts. His throwing is inaccurate. He too often skips out of the pocket when pressure doesn’t dictate. He seems a one-read quarterback. Pickett’s so-called swag is in short supply and mostly fictional.

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Pickett isn’t ready to play. Little evidence suggests he is, anyway.

Should the Steelers yank Pickett and play Mason Rudolph or Mitch Trubisky?

This isn’t about winning. The Steelers can’t win enough to get within legit striking distance of a playoff berth.

This isn’t about debating who’s better, Rudolph or Trubisky. (Though it would be interesting to see Rudolph get a shot after Pickett and Trubisky mostly have failed.)

This is about determining if Pickett is developing properly by playing, or if he’d benefit more by backing up right now.

Does the experience he’s getting help or hinder?

The NFL is a quick-strike league, and Pickett hasn’t shown that capability.

Is Pickett improving? Because I don’t see that.

Are bad habits becoming ingrained?

I’m not sure what the Steelers should do. Being benched would be a blow to Pickett. But he isn’t ready.

His stats are awful. He’s thrown only two touchdown passes in six games, none in Sunday’s home win over New Orleans. He’s thrown eight interceptions. None on Sunday, if that provides cause for rejoicing. His passer rating is 68.8. Ugh.

More on the Steelers' win over the Saints:

• Steelers right ship with win over Saints
• Steelers come out running vs. Saints, finish with their best rushing game in 6 years
• Returns of T.J. Watt, Damontae Kazee contribute to Steelers’ dominant defensive effort
• Steelers injury report: Myles Jack cleared, but held out of Steelers’ victory as precaution
• Minkah Fitzpatrick underwent appendectomy soon after Steelers’ Saturday walkthrough

Perhaps beating New Orleans is worth celebrating, but Pickett had little to do with that. The Steelers rushed for 217 yards. (Pickett did contribute 51 of those.)

The Steelers had the ball for almost 39 minutes but scored just 20 points vs. New Orleans. (That’s better than usual. The Steelers rank fifth from bottom in the NFL at just 15.6 points per game.)

If offensive coordinator Matt Canada is at fault, replace him.

Pickett’s either being used like a game manager or choosing that method through his reads. A first-round draft pick shouldn’t be turning into a mere game manager just six games into his career.

But for whatever reason, Pickett isn’t playing well and isn’t getting better. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or refuses to see what’s happening.

At 24 and after playing 52 games at Pitt, Pickett was said to be NFL-ready. Not so far.

It would be a disaster if Pickett plays the rest of the season and doesn’t improve. It would make the season a failure.

Sunday’s victory meant little.

It was a bad game between two bad teams. It doesn’t relaunch the Steelers’ season.

The Steelers are 3-6. They would have to finish 9-8 to even have a slim chance at making the playoffs and don’t seem likely to win six of their last eight.

T.J. Watt certainly showed his value.

Watt didn’t get a sack, but the trickle down of his presence was huge. Watt creates chaos and fear. He improves the defense immeasurably even if he doesn’t post big stats.

The Steelers are 2-0 this season when Watt plays, 1-6 otherwise. That’s incredibly telling, even with a small sample. (The Steelers are 2-4 when Pickett plays.)