Kenny Pickett, the quarterback for the Steelers, refutes reports that he declined to start in Seattle’s victory. “They were disparaging my persona.”
Rumors have been refuted by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, who stated he declined to play as Mason Rudolph’s backup against the Seattle Seahawks on New Year’s Eve.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, two days after the Steelers’ thrilling 30-23 victory, was Pickett.
Pickett was listed as questionable prior to the game, but he did not play against Seattle. As soon as the rumors started circulating on social media, Pickett called them out and said they were ‘attacking my character and how I am as a person.’
“I had to decide whether to start playing or not,” Pickett remarked. “Or I was going to be the [No] 3 and not dress if they didn’t think I was good enough to do that, healthy enough.”
This week, there was no mention of me serving as a backup quarterback.
“I was going to start and play if I felt well enough to play and the trainers and coaches thought I looked good enough to play.” I refused to get dressed and suit up for the game if they thought I wasn’t who they thought I wasn’t.
It’s kind of crazy what people will write and put out there to try to prove their point or help their standpoint or careers and what you guys do, so whoever reported that—I don’t know where it started. But I was disappointed to see that there was no foundation or proof for it.
After suffering an ankle sprain in their previous game, a 24-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on December 3, Pickett had tight rope surgery the next day. Late last week, he received the all-clear to play and it was announced that he will start as the backup quarterback in the team’s regular season finale on January 6 against the Baltimore Ravens.
“I’m the 2 now, this week,” Pickett declared. Four weeks after the surgery, they feel well enough for me to dress and take care of the two. Thus, I’ll be the two and take whatever necessary action to be prepared to leave Baltimore.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin started Rudolph, who has led them in back-to-back victories, while Pickett was sidelined due to an injury. By starting Rudolph against the Ravens again, Tomlin is taking a chance on the momentum.
“We’re going to give Mason Rudolph the ball,” Tomlin declared. He’s performed admirably, and over the last two weeks, we’ve performed admirably as well. He’s looked after the ball; we’ve looked after it.
We’ve scored points at a rate this year that we haven’t done before. We’re going to hand the ball over to him due to the urgency of the situation and those rationales.
Pickett has completed 201 of 324 passes for 2,070 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games this season.
With a 9-7 record, the Steelers are currently in third place in the AFC North. Pittsburgh visits the Ravens in an attempt to close out the regular season on a three-game winning streak.
Right now, the Steelers are barely out of the playoff picture but are still very much in the running.
