Kenny Pickett News

Pickett entered Sunday's game with some momentum after leading game-winning drives in back-to-back weeks. However, the Pittsburgh offense was stalled early on, as Pickett began with just one completion on his first six attempts. He improved marginally from there and managed five completions of more than 20 yards for the second time of his career. While Pickett closes his rookie campaign with only seven touchdowns and nine interceptions across 13 games, his performance is trending in a positive direction heading into his sophomore season.

Pickett didn't post gaudy fantasy totals, but he protected the ball well and produced a game-winning touchdown drive for the second consecutive week to keep Pittsburgh's playoff hopes alive. The rookie signal-caller dropped a dime to Najee Harris between two defenders with less than a minute left on the aforementioned drive to put the Steelers up for good. Pickett has had his ups and downs this season, but he is starting to look like a successful pick in a draft that wasn't considered strong at his position. The Steelers will need some help to make the playoffs, but Pickett will attempt to take care of business against an already-eliminated Browns squad on Sunday.

Pickett returned from a one-game absence caused by a concussion and topped 30 pass attempts for only the second time in his last six games. He averaged a subpar 6.3 yards per attempt but effectively distributed the ball to top pass-catching options such as Pat Freiermuth, Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Pickett also orchestrated a game-winning drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, during which he completed seven of nine passes for 75 yards, which eh capped with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Pickens. With the performance, Pickett surpassed 200 passing yards for the fourth time in 11 games on the campaign, though he has yet to throw for multiple scores in a contest.

Pickett entered the concussion protocol for the second time this season during the Steelers' Week 14 loss to the Ravens, when he exited the contest and then briefly re-entered before leaving the game for good after self-reporting symptoms of a brain injury, according to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The rookie signal-caller wasn't able to advance beyond limited participation in practice last week and ended up sitting out Pittsburgh's win over Carolina on Sunday, but he's been able to take every rep with the first-team offense so far in Week 16. Though he'll reclaim starting duties from Mitch Trubisky this weekend, Pickett told Lolley that he'll be switching helmets and wearing a visor with the hope of offering better protection against another head injury over the final three games of the season.

While the Steelers didn't actually practice Tuesday, coach Mike Tomlin said he expects Pickett to return and start Saturday against the Raiders. Of course, the rookie will first need to clear the NFL's concussion protocol -- something that still hadn't happened as of Tuesday morning, per Tomlin.

According to head coach Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett (concussion) will start in Week 16's contest against the Las Vegas Raiders. Pickett is expected to return after Pittsburgh's rookie quarterback was held out in Week 15 with a concussion. In a favorable matchup versus a Las Vegas unit allowing 19.6 FanDuel points per game to quarterbacks, Pickett's FanDuel salary stands at $6,500. On 294 attempts, Pickett is ranked 21st among his position with a 67.7 Pro Football Focus offensive rating while accounting for 4 touchdowns, 1797 yards, a 74.1% adjusted completion rate, and a 3.2% big time throw percentage.