Kenny Pickett’s latest stop with the Carolina Panthers got off to a rough start in the Hall of Fame game, and it only gave Steelers fans more reason to feel good about Pittsburgh moving on.
Three years after the Steelers traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles, Pickett’s career is still sliding the wrong way. He’s now with his fourth team in two years and has started only three games over that stretch. In Carolina, he’s battling for a backup quarterback job, and while he entered the preseason opener as the likely favorite, that picture may have gotten a lot cloudier.
Pickett had a chance to make a clean impression against a lineup full of backups, but the performance never really took off. He went 8-for-11 through the air, was sacked once, and the offense didn’t do much during his time on the field.
Once Pickett was out, the Panthers looked livelier. Undrafted rookie Hayes King stepped in and changed the tone of the game, using both his arm and his legs to pile up 219 total yards and three touchdowns. He finished it himself too, scrambling into the end zone on the final play to seal the win.
That showing didn’t erase the fact that King still has plenty to prove, but it did give Carolina something Pickett couldn’t: momentum. The contrast was hard to miss. Pickett’s stretch felt flat, while King brought energy and production to the offense.
For Steelers Nation, the result was simple enough. The Pickett era is over, and after another shaky preseason outing, there’s little reason to regret that.
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