The Steelers made it official yesterday that their first-round rookie quarterback, Kenny Pickett, will start the season on the sideline. And that means there won’t be a single rookie quarterback starting in Week One.
That’s unusual: It will mark the first time since 2007 that no rookie quarterbacks are starting in the first week of the season.
That year, two quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the draft: JaMarcus Russell to the Raiders No. 1 and Brady Quinn to the Browns No. 22, while three quarterbacks were drafted in the second round: Kevin Kolb to the Eagles, John Beck to the Dolphins and Drew Stanton to the Lions. But none of those quarterbacks were ready to start in Week One. (As it turned out, none of the quarterbacks drafted in 2007 was ever ready to be a good NFL starter.)
This year Pickett, the No. 20 overall pick, was the only quarterback taken in the first two rounds. NFL teams weren’t high on this class of quarterbacks. Time will tell if any of this year’s rookie class can prove to be a solid starter, but none of them are ready in Week One.
