Kovacevic: The Pickett pick's fun, but it comes within a calculated cause

No, it doesn't matter that Kenny Pickett's from Pitt.

Oh, it does infuse the Steelers' first-round pick in the NFL Draft, executed late Thursday night at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, with a fair amount of fun. It affords fans and folks on my side of the fence, present company included, endless opportunities at furthering the Pitt-to-Pittsburgh themes and memes in the weeks, months, even years ahead. 

Stuff like this from the league itself, accompanied by a Jesus-like rendering/photoshop:

It also affords the noted comic Mike Tomlin the chance to crack unsolicitedly, as happened here, that he and Kevin Colbert had just "circled the globe, exploring and researching," only to find their fit was "a guy from next door:"

Pickett, too, chased that punchline:

Get it? Like, how the Steelers and the Pitt football program share not only a city but also this very training facility, split right down the center wall?

Hey, get used to it. For better or worse, depending on the material and delivery.

But here's the main thing to cull from all this, as I see it, and it dispenses with all the warm-and-funny in favor of calculating bordering on ice cold: What Tomlin, Colbert and by extension Art Rooney II just completed was a process of accumulating as many potential Ben Roethlisberger replacements as they could squeeze into a single offseason, with the clear hope that one could emerge as exactly that.

That's one, as in one.

That's why Mason Rudolph was drafted, developed and kept into the 2022 season. That's why Dwayne Haskins was acquired, developed and was going to be kept into the 2022 season before the recent tragedy. That's why Mitch Trubisky was signed out of free agency to a two-year, $14.285 million contract, not only to be kept into the 2022 season but also to be the presumptive starter.

All three were seen by management as being legit candidates to start in the NFL, albeit to varying degrees. They've seen Rudolph that way since he was drafted. The other two carried first-round pedigree, with Trubisky having been a No. 2 overall pick of the Bears just five years ago.

And now ... Pickett.

My friends, that's not addressing the problem. That's attacking it. From all sides with all weaponry loaded.

Which is to say nothing of the specific approach to this draft, one that saw them visibly focus -- no, obsess -- over the quarterbacks in this class, even as experts everywhere decried both its quality and quantity. They showed up at every quarterback's pro day this side of Geneva College. They dined with enough quarterbacks and their families to have fed half the free world. They couldn't take their eyes off players at the position anywhere they went, notably at the NFL Combine.

Why?

It couldn't be more obvious, particularly now: They sought to maximize their odds.

And that's the part, of course, that they can't just blurt out. Because it'd come across as a lack of faith in the individual candidates, rather than a simple statement of fact. Though they can and should feel comfortable charactering what's to come this summer as an open competition between Trubisky, Rudolph and Pickett because ... well, it should be. 

Think about it: Who among those three, for different reasons, has earned being any team's default starter?

To his credit, Colbert did come close to blurting out the underlying part after this pick, at least after a little additional misdirection. When asked if the Steelers felt it was imperative to take a quarterback in the first round, he replied, "It wasn't. You know, there were plenty of good players that we could have taken here. There's plenty left for us to take."

Uh, OK.

He then got real, adding, "But this quarterback group, if we could address it with people that we felt worthy of this pick, we certainly were going to. Because quarterback is the most critical spot in the National Football League. That's not to take anything away from Mitch and Mason. We've got three young quarterbacks. I think it's going to be great competition. They'll all be in it to see who becomes the starter, and now I think we've got three real good options."

That's it. That's game, set and match in analyzing this pick.

I don't care what Tomlin and/or Colbert would claim on this count, I haven't believed for months that they'd consider any other position. And for precisely the reasoning that Colbert offered: There's no position that's more important. There's no position that's close. Maybe not in any sport, since baseball's starting pitchers touch the ball once every five games.

This past offseason, contrary to a lot of what these two gentlemen have felt the need to put out there, came with a singular aim of replacing Ben in the long term. And though they'd deny this, too, it came with the heightened urgency of this being Colbert's final draft. They weren't about to leave this to his successor. And, in the intangible sense, they weren't about to let him walk without one last chapter to his Hall of Fame career, whether that was out of obligation or out of hoping to get one final mile from it.

So, they did it. They were never going to replace in a year or two. Look at the NFL's history of franchise quarterbacks. Or the franchise's own, with just Ben and Terry Bradshaw. They're rare. They're gold. They're the game-changers amid a league of Andy Dalton types.

Look, I'm not making any grand predictions about the trio now in the Steelers' employ. Pickett's here to "put his hand in the pile," to borrow a Tomlin-ism. He's not necessarily the answer, anymore than Trubisky or Rudolph might be. But his presence puts the collective that much closer to that answer. 

That objective, in its totality, is infinitely more important than adding almost anyone available at any lesser position.

• Now, having said all that, the Pickett story's genuinely cool. He arrived at Pitt in 2018 to little fanfare, even among those who follow the program, and his relentless work ethic allowed him to progress to the point that, after returning for another season in the college ranks, he became a Heisman Trophy finalist and led the Panthers to an ACC championship this past winter. Both of those are heights not even the hardiest of Pitt faithful could've thought possible ... wow, just a couple years ago, right?

And now, after half a decade in the Steelers' shadow here, he gets to strut right across the hall.

That's excellent. I'm not pretending otherwise. Just pointing out above stuff that's of a far greater scope.

• Why Pickett rather than Malik Willis, the presumptive pick among so many, present company again included?

That'll likely never be known in full -- team execs don't make a habit of discussing players they don't pick, even off the record -- but it's safe to suggest the Steelers weren't lying at all that they didn't think Pickett would fall.

Watch Tomlin's brief dialogue with a team employee on his way to call Pickett:

No football coach is that skilled an actor.

Also and related, Pickett later divulged that Tomlin's call -- the one he's making up there -- came less than a minute after the Saints' pick was in at No. 19. The man probably had to sprint to that room.

"There was a great group, and we really enjoyed getting to know them, getting to know their families," Colbert said of the quarterback class. "But obviously, when you take this guy first, he was our top choice. And again, can't take anything away from the rest of that group, but Kenny was clearly our top pick at that position, and it was ... unexpected."

Rough translation: Willis was Plan A only in the context that they never envisioned Pickett being there. I'll bet they'd have taken Willis, too.

• Once the Panthers passed on Pickett at No. 6, that marked the first time I saw this scenario as realistic. But, at the same time, once I saw the first five picks be defensive players and realized the Panthers could have their choice of any of this outstanding offensive tackle class, seeing North Carolina State's Ikem Ekwonu go their way set the stage that much more.

• It's not a great class for quarterbacks. If it was, Pickett wouldn't have been there until No. 20, marking the latest the first quarterback was taken in any draft since 1997.

But that truth can and should easily dovetail with the Steelers having improved their outlook at their most important position.

• Pickett's an older pick at age 24, so Tomlin's verbatim assessment of his shot to start -- "He'll be given an opportunity to compete, certainly" -- has more plausibility than it otherwise might.

There's this, too:

And this terrific nugget from NFL Network's Cynthia Frelund:

• Our Chris Carter supports that stance with a special-edition Classroom.

• Our Dale Lolley has more from Pickett.

• My own view is that Trubisky remains the favorite, though not without earning it. At least at the outset. He's got four years as an NFL starter to his name, he's still only 27, and the Steelers weren't faking their excitement upon signing him. They believe, as many do in the industry, that he had issues in Chicago that were Chicago-specific, and that he'd begun to sort those out last season in Buffalo behind Josh Allen.

• Rudolph, on the other hand, might get traded. Or he might ask for one. Talk to me about a three-man competition for starting quarterback, and I won't be able to get past who'll concoct a way to create all those reps.

Most likely scenario is that he'd be moved at or near the end of camp.

• Man ... that guy. Just never stops getting clubbed over the head with helmets, huh?

• Wide receiver up first Friday, pretty please. And double that sentiment if it's Skyy Moore still sitting there.

• Thanks for reading this!