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QB Kenny Pickett would be a huge mistake for the Washington Football Team according to former NFL scout

Kenny Pickett Washington
Should the Washington Football Team select Kenny Pickett from Pittsburgh? Daniel Kelly is not a fan of Pickett, and a huge fan of Washington.

With Washington currently holding the fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft, the last thing in the world they should do, is draft University of Pittsburgh quarterback (QB) Kenny Pickett. 

On November 3rd, I put a fifth-round grade on Pickett (click here to see the article)

The most dangerous thing any fan or any team can do, is look at a highlight reel of a player and get excited. Anyone can be made to look like a superstar if you only focus on their best plays, loop them altogether and add some music. 

You have to look at the player’s “full body of work.” 

You have to look at what the player looks like in complete games, and in a number of games, to get a real feel for who the player is. 

I am blown away at how these national narratives get started and take on a life of their own. It feels like Zach Wilson all over again with Pickett. 

Being an evaluator is like being a private investigator. All the clues are there on the game film and some of the statistics are telling too. I am different from the other well-known draft analysts out there. I disclose which games I have studied and I will go head-to-head against anyone in the country, based on the game film analysis. A lot of these other “draft experts” out there just shoot from the hip and they all sound the same. If you have heard one take, you have heard all of them. It makes me wonder if they are copying each other. It makes me wonder if they are actually even doing the work.

Nobody in America can watch Pickett against Western Michigan, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Miami and tell me he is a first-round draft pick. 

Pickett showed zero dominant traits in these four games in 2021. Not to mention, he lacks energy as a leader and he runs Pittsburgh’s offense with a herky-jerky tempo and rhythm. 

Pickett tends to bail out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure. He is spooked by any type of pressure, and he lacks the playing speed to do much in the way of running. His ball placement is not what he needs to be. He does not throw that friendly of a pass consistently where receivers can just pluck it out of the air and keep running. His ball placement is all over the place downfield. Pickett is also inconsistent deep. He is just anything but a starter in the National Football League. He is a career-backup at best with an adequate arm. I would never want him on my team if I was picking the players. I would never want him in the game, if I could help it. 

Drafting Pickett in the first round would set Washington back years and it would get everyone fired in their building. Pickett is the second coming of QB Rex Grossman. The least of Washington’s problems is QB. If Washington wants to draft a QB, they would be far wiser to draft Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder in the 4th round, who shows far more upside than Pickett. 

If Washington insists on drafting a QB in the first round, the only two guys to consider are Matt Corral or Carson Strong. They are the only two QB’s in this draft that should even be mentioned in the first round considerations. 

Just looking at Pickett’s career stats in college, should be enough to scare anyone away from him. The radical jump specially in touchdowns to interceptions is alarming. Where were those numbers in 2018, 2019 and 2020?

Daniel Kelly is a former NFL scout with the New York Jets. He was hired on the regime which featured Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Mike Tannenbaum, and Dick Haley. He currently writes for Sports Illustrated Detroit Lions, Sports Illustrated New York Jets and he is a contributing evaluator for Draft Diamonds. For more information about him visit his website at whateverittakesbook.com. He can be followed on Twitter @danielkellybook and his Facebook page is WHATEVER IT TAKES NFL TALK. 

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