NFL Draft First Look: QB Kenny Pickett
Taking a first look at Pitt QB Kenny Pickett, who could be one of the top quarterbacks in this upcoming draft class
First off I wanted to apologise to all of you for the lack of content since the end of the Broncos’ game. I was travelling home from Sweden at the start of the week and then over this past weekend I got sick, which I’m still recovering from. But hopefully I’m coming through the worst of it now and should be back to 100% by the next game.
With that out the way, I did manage to get hold of some footage of some college quarterbacks this week. With Washington’s season looking more likely to be lost than recoverable, I figured I could do a first look at some of the top rated quarterbacks. Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett was by far the most requested when I asked on twitter who everyone wants to see, so I’ll start with him, but I’ll stress that this is purely a first look as I’ve only got the All-22 of his most recent game against Duke.
In the game against Duke, Pickett completed 28 of 43 passes for 416 yards and three touchdowns. It was a pretty solid performance all round, so let's take a closer look.
This was Pickett’s first throw of the game. Pitt runs a slot fade combination to the left of the formation, with the outside receiver running a quick hitch to occupy the outside corner and create space for the slot receiver to run his fade route. Just before the ball is snapped, Pickett can see the defense struggling to get aligned properly, with the slot defender being instructed to shift outside to the slot receiver late. After he snaps the ball, Pickett checks the safety rotation to ensure the slot fade is on. With a single deep safety in the middle of the field, he knows it’s likely the slot fade will be available as long as the outside corner doesn’t fall back.
Pickett peaks outside and spots the outside corner staying with the hitch, meaning he can pull the trigger to the slot fade. However, with pressure arriving up the middle, he can’t fully step into the throw. The ball ends up slightly underthrown, which means the receiver has to slow down and wait for the ball. That prevented any yards after the catch, but with a defender in his face, it’s understandable that he’d fall away from the throw and not get as much on it as he would have liked.
It was a good start for Pickett and the offense. There were good reads all over, from pre-snap to post snap and being able to get the ball out quickly with pressure in his face was impressive. Given the success of the play, it made sense that Pitt came back to the exact same play later on in the game.
This is the exact same concept as before, with a hitch from the outside receiver and a fade from the slot receiver. The third receiver to that side also runs what some teams call a branch route, which is a stick route but the break comes at 10 yards instead of five. On the back side, the isolated receiver runs a dig route while the running back checks protection before spotting up underneath the dig.
What I liked most about these two plays is that Pickett demonstrates the ability to read the same concept against different coverages and get to different receivers in the progression. On the first play, we saw him hit the slot fade. But this time around, the coverage is different. Duke starts with two deep safeties but the safety to the trips side steps up while the safety to the other side rotates back to the deep middle. Pickett checks the outside corner, who falls off to match the slot fade. He then moves his feet with his eyes and lines up to throw the hitch on the outside, but spots a flat defender rushing out there to cover it. Pickett then moves onto his third read, progressing all the way back to the back side dig route. He gets his feet sorted as he works from front side to back side and hits the dig route to pick up a first down.
There’s a few important notes to take away from these two plays. They showed Pickett understands how to progress through a read and doesn’t just rely on his first read or his pre-snap read to get open for him to be successful. He showed an understanding that different coverages will take away different options on any given concept, so he has to work through the progression and check off the routes as designed.
From a Washington perspective, this is very important. Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner often likes to call the same handful of concepts throughout the game, but disguises them with various formations and motions to keep defenses from knowing what’s coming. This means the reads can stay the same for the quarterback, making that part easier for him, but he has to be able to work through the progressions against various different coverages he might see. That’s precisely what we saw from Pickett on those two plays, which would be an encouraging sign in terms of a fit with Washington.
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