Kovacevic: Pickett, Steelers -- even fans? -- have real reasons to smile

Want to know the problem?

It's the preseason. Still.

Don't misunderstand, please: The way the Steelers performed all summer long, right through those three pristine preseason games, was as real as real gets. Execution's execution under any circumstance. The scheme isn't. The setting isn't. The resistance isn't. But the execution itself's every bit as real as every stride George Pickens takes to crush his coverage:

The pass still has to be made. The catch still has to be made. Those toes still need to stay inside the white. That's not about anyone hyping anything. What was shining through was real talent with real potential.

Where the signals became crossed, seemingly inside and outside the Steelers' world, was that everyone forgot that the AFC North was absolutely, positively destined to evolve -- devolve? -- into a 17-game slog-fest. It was never going to be easy. Nor pretty. Not for anyone. Not even Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

And maybe it'll take a day like yesterday, with the Steelers on a bye but with all of the division's other three three teams victorious, even the badly beat-up Browns, missing Nick Chubb and Deshaun Watson, magically fending off the phenomenal 49ers on a missed field goal ...

... to fully process that reality.

But hey, here we are:

ESPN

Mm-hm. That's just how it's going to be. How it was always going to be. And I'd argue that goes double for the local franchise deploying a second-year quarterback, an overall offense that hadn't fully formed an identity even through that 7-2 finish to the 2022 season and, of course, a coordinator who can't tell his Xs from his Os from a hole in the ground. Not to mention a defense installing an almost entirely new set of inside linebackers, safeties and corners. 

That scenario presented no chance to be some linear rocket-launch of progress. And I'd say that whether or not Cam Heyward, Diontae Johnson and other critical contributors had gotten hurt. There were bound to be bumps, including a few biggies. There were bound to be setbacks, including a few biggies. There were bound to be doubts.

Maybe those doubts will be dead-on, too. I'm not about to predict otherwise, barring Art Rooney and/or Mike Tomlin effecting the real change this organization very much needs to go next-level, and I mean that even beyond the obvious firing of Matt Canada. For all I know, they'll lay an egg in Los Angeles next week and fall apart from there.

But I don't think so. I really don't.

And I could make my case, I swear, on the quarterback alone.

Kenny Pickett's made 17 NFL starts now, although he was hurt in one of those after just one pass. That's a full season. So, while I and others will repeatedly refer to him as a second-year quarterback -- this is his second year, right? -- his real second set of 17 games begins, to be fair, this weekend against the Rams. Standing on the sideline wearing a headset and watching Mitch Trubisky doesn't count.

To date, then, Pickett's got a 10-7 record, including 10-3 in the past 13 that he started and finished, built largely on five game-winning drives and four fourth-quarter comebacks.

Perspective on that: Lamar Jackson's got seven fourth-quarter comebacks in 67 starts.

Pickett's completed 63.8% of his passes for 3,431 yards, 12 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and a 77.3 QB rating.

Perspective on that: In his own first 17 starts, Trevor Lawrence completed 59.6% of his passes for 3,641 yds, 12 touchdowns, 17 interceptions and a 71.9 QBR.

And we're ready to bury the kid?

If nothing else, appreciate his legit humility and awareness of the areas that need improvement, huh?

"We've shown flashes," Pickett was saying over this bye week about the offense. "We haven't put it together for a full game, and that's what you're always hunting. We're fighting to be more consistent."

And what'll that entail from his own perspective?

"Just giving our guys chances to make plays. Putting guys in one-on-ones and putting the ball up myself to allow them to make plays. You know, getting better at operating the offense. Being smooth. Putting us in third-and-manageable situations. Working the pocket, continuing to get better there. So I'm using this week to step back and kinda fine-tooth comb it to see where we can be better."

He will be. Partly because he recognizes that he can be. And that he has to be. Just like after the bye in 2022.

That arrow's up, as Tomlin loves to say. All the way up. Doesn't mean Pickett's better than Jackson. Doesn't mean he's got Lawrence's upside. Doesn't mean he'll challenge Burrow for divisional supremacy. But it's undeniable that he's on a healthy trajectory that, at the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses, promises to be that much better if/when other issues are addressed.

What if, for instance, the combined returns of Johnson, Pat Freiermuth and Anthony McFarland allow the offense to more closely resemble what was witnessed in the preseason, particularly in that Pickett will have all his possession targets back?

What if Broderick Jones sticks at left tackle, as he should following a pressure-free starting debut?

What if Mason Cole regains his respectable 2022 form, which isn't asking a ton, just as James Daniels returns to his right?

What if George ... just keeps getting better and better and better, as he appears to with each passing week?

That look like a flat-line trajectory to anyone?

Talk about an arrow up. 

And there's no way I'd omit this: What if Jaylen Warren were to take on a more prominent role in the offense? Meaning, naturally, more prominent than that of Najee Harris?

I don't care who was drafted where or whether they were drafted at all. I don't care who's won the head coach's heart. And I definitely don't care who comes up with the occasional burst in the occasional quarter on occasional Sundays.

I care about all three of these plays:

Took over the game, indeed. That's how a first-rounder should roll, rather than sputtering along at 2.6 yards per carry. The Steelers have a No. 1 running back, only they aren't utilizing him that way.

"I feel like we're getting there," Warren was telling me over this bye week. He invariably refers to the running backs in the plural. "We're feeding off each other and making it happen. We're just gonna keep getting stronger, too."

Make that switch. Commit to the rookie at left tackle. Get all the injured guys back in the groove. Do whatever can conceivably done to assist/circumvent Canada. Ride the arrows where they're pointing, not where they aren't.

The defense checked off one massive box against Baltimore with that 23-tackle performance by Kwon Alexander, Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts. Myself, I've fallen for them in every way. It's a blessing to cover collective competency at inside linebacker for the first time since the tandem of Ryan Shazier and Vince Williams. It's beautiful to see.

"It's there," Alexander was telling me. "It's taken some work, but it's there."

The secondary's still a work. So's the front. But the former can be -- arguably should be -- addressed by the NFL's Oct. 31 trade deadline, and the latter simply needs a whole lotta Cam, accompanied by a dash of Keeanu Benton, and it'll be fine.

Again, I'm not making a prediction and, if I were, it sure wouldn't be for a picnic. It'll be ugly, bordering on brutal at times. But I'll be damned if that shouldn't be far more familiar territory for all of us than that preseason was.