Kenny Pickett, small hands and big dreams

The NFL draft, which took place this weekend in Las Vegas, in the United States, is more than the obligatory selection of college rookies for one of the most popular and dominant leagues on the planet (and let them say it, if not , the annual numbers of advertisers and viewers of the Super Bowl): it is a kind of initiation ritual. Every year we see it repeated. The great stars of college football come out of the first round of the draft bound for professional franchises with dizzying, million-dollar deals under their arms.

Sometimes the expectations (and the huge economic stakes that support them) are fulfilled and the boys are a success, but, not in a few, those players so mediatic and flashy, pressed to the limit from day one, collapse and become historical failures. The opposite also happens, of course: that rookies out of the spotlight, and who are taken in late rounds of selection, become the real stars. Without going any further, Tom Brady, the quarterback (QB) winner in history and, for many, the most outstanding NFL athlete of all time, was selected in a sixth round. That is to say, that all the teams let him pass under his nose several times before the New England Patriots decided to give him a chance.

This is a league of quarterbacks: they dominate the game, decide who takes the ball and send it to them, apply attacking strategies on the field and carry out many of the main actions. Except that in the 2022 draft, contrary to what usually happens, there were not too many quarterbacks on the radar of the teams. Only one was selected in the first round, in the 20th place (and not since 1997 has the first QB been selected so late): Kenneth Shane Pickett, 23, a player for the Panthers at the University of Pittsburgh, who will play for the professional franchise of this historic city in the NFL: the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose starting QB, Ben Roethlisberger, retired after 18 years with the team.

Kenny Pickett, as he is popularly known, was born in June 1998 in Oakhurst, New Jersey. He earned a start on the Pittsburgh Panthers as a sophomore in college, but his numbers grew exponentially only in his final season, which just ended, in which he broke records for the school’s most illustrious graduate: the legendary QB. Dan Marino. The excellent numbers of Pickett, who was selected as part of the first team of the best players of the season, and was voted winner of the Johnny Unitas Trophy (for a QB who shows exceptional leadership qualities) and third place in the Heismann Trophy (which is awarded to the player of the year), should be enough to take him as an elite prospect.

But there are doubts around him. The main one is that his hands are smaller than those of the average quarterback, and the NFL ball is slightly larger than the one in college football, which some experts say could cause him to have trouble handling and holding it. Others think that, despite his good mobility, Pickett is too traditional a QB, far from the running style of Malik Willis, the favorite prospect of some bettors and specialists, who, however, fell to 86th place overall in recruitment, since in the third round.

Pickett is hugely popular in Pittsburgh, having led the Panthers to their best season since 1976. He is considered a local hero, and television stations recorded celebrations at sports bars watching the draft when it was announced the Steelers had picked him up. selected. Will we see a fairy tale and the golden boy of the city will get a great career in the team of his love? Or will he fail and end up in the closet where the memory of all those who wanted and couldn’t end up? Whatever happens, this will be remembered as the Kenny Pickett draft.

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