The Pittsburgh Steelers lost a 24-10 game to the lowly Arizona Cardinals and may have lost Kenny Pickett for the remainder of the season, too.
According to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac, Pickett — who left in the second quarter against the Cardinals with an ankle injury and did not return — will undergo surgery on his ankle and miss anywhere from two to four games.
The Steelers, for reference, have five regular season games left in the 2023 season.
Pickett completed 7-of-10 pass attempts for 70 yards before he left the game, returning to the sideline in the second half with a walking boot on his ankle. Backup Mitch Trubisky threw for 117 yards and a touchdown in relief but lost a costly fumble.
It’s a tough blow for Pickett, who came off his best performance of the season in a win against the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago, completing 24-of-33 pass attempts (71.2%) for a season-high 278 yards, and now the injury bug is once again lingering over his head. It’s the fifth time he’s been forced out of a game in his young career.
Through 11 games this season, Pickett has completed 201-of-324 pass attempts (62%) for 2,070 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions — adding a rushing touchdown. It has been an impossibly difficult season for the Steelers offense this season, with offensive coordinator Matt Canada fired last month, and it feels like there’s a new struggle arising every week.
Obviously, the Steelers would like to see more consistency from Pickett — and the entire offense — throughout the course of individual games, and as Pickett is sidelined, it’s a tough blow for his development. He will very likely miss multiple games.
The Steelers will take on the New England Patriots on a short week, another contest against a two-win squad, before traveling to Indianapolis to take on the Colts. It seems likely that Pickett will miss at least those two games.
It remains to be seen just how much time Pickett will miss this season, but there’s a win-able slate of games ahead (although that could’ve been said for the Cardinals loss, too), and there’s a chance Pickett could return for the final couple of games to end the season. And those games will most certainly be important — for Pickett and the Steelers.
A Christmas Eve Eve matchup at home against the Bengals and then back-to-back road games against the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens will conclude the regular season. But even with the loss the Cardinals, the Steelers (7-5) sit in the first Wild Card spot in the AFC. So, there’s postseason play at stake.
He completed 245-of-389 pass attempts (63%) for 2,404 yards with seven touchdowns and nine interceptions (adding 237 rushing yards and three more touchdowns on the ground) as a rookie last season. And while he’s shown flashes as a sophomore, it hasn’t been the season he’s wanted.
The injury just adds insult to injury — literally — as the final stretch of the season approaches.
