The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Kenny Pickett with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. In an event mired by highly-touted quarterbacks dropping far lower than expected, the Pitt standout was the lone star who went roughly where he was projected to go.
Many have long regarded Pickett as the most NFL-ready quarterback prospect in this draft. The one indictment against him has been his hand size. Coming in at 8.5 inches, his hands are the smallest in the league for a passer by a significant margin.
How much that will ultimately impact him remains to be seen.
This week, Tomlin appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and offered his thoughts on his new quarterback’s tiny, tiny hands.
“I was potentially capable of buying into that if I didn’t watch him play college football in Pittsburgh and deal with the elements that comes with playing in this environment,” said Tomlin.
“So, you can get into the ‘hand size’ thing, or you can just look at how he performed in a variety of conditions. And we have those conditions here in Pittsburgh. So, there’s very little speculation from our perspective about how he might handle the ball in inclement weather, wet days, etc.
“They [University of Pittsburgh] played North Carolina here on a Thursday night. I actually went to the game and it was raining pretty good that night. Had no issues. And so, it was probably less of an issue for us [the Steelers organization] as it was just in terms of some of the draft chatter.”
Tomlin isn’t the first person to weigh in on this matter. Pickett’s own girlfriend, Amy Paternot, has addressed the situation as well.
The decision to take Pickett over someone like Malik Willis was obviously an interesting one by Pittsburgh. Especially since the front office seemed to be expressing so much interest in the Liberty standout. It’s unclear how much his Wonderlic score played into the situation.
Yikes. https://t.co/Qb80qV5k0w
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 5, 2022
This is going to be a fascinating season for the Steelers and Pickett.
Will they be able to prove the naysayers wrong and make some serious noise in the AFC North?
Time will tell.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
