The Steelers have signed quarterback Kenny Pickett to a four-year contract with a team option for the fifth season, the standard contract for a first-round draft pick.
The deal, reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter, will run through 2025, with the Steelers having the option of picking up his contract for the 2026 season in the spring of 2025. Terms were not immediately available.
Pickett, a former Pitt star, was the team's first-round pick and 20th-overall selection in this year's draft. He was the final first-round draft pick that was unsigned going into Thursday after the Patriots signed guard Cole Strange earlier this week.
Pickett also was the only quarterback selected in the first round of this year's draft. Considered the most pro-ready quarterback in this year's draft class, Pickett was selected more than 50 picks before the next quarterback, Desmond Ridder by the Falcons, was taken.
When the Steelers selected Pickett, who had a record-setting season in 2021 at Pitt, finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting, Mike Tomlin said he would be given an opportunity to compete for the starting job with Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph as the Steelers begin the post-Ben Roethlisberger era.
But at the team's recently completed offseason program, Trubisky took all of the snaps with the presumed starting lineup.
The Steelers, however, were not unhappy with what they've seen from Pickett.
"Coach (Tomlin) has been very clear that Mitch is 1 and he’s been working with the 1s and doing a real good job of that," offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. "Mason is at 2 and Kenny is 3. We’re doing it that way based on experience, based on resumes. Coach made that decision. You can read whatever you want into it. Coach has been very clear. We also were very clear this is a real laid-out plan of how we’re going to evolve and find who our quarterback is going to be for the 2022 season."
