I’m caught up in the Steelers hype like most. Definitely more this year than in the recent past, and Im really excited to see what Kenny brings his second year. I’m not a film breakdown guy, and I’m not a college football guy. Living down here DEEP in SEC country, it’s all I can do to avoid the topic. But I went back and watched just about every YouTube video I could find of Kenny’s days at Pitt. I’m sure many of you followed him closely in college and have been able to foretell what he might bring, but I wanted to watch for myself. I was certainly familiar with the accolades, but dang…the film. Some things that stuck out…
1. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this, I looked at his stats from Pitt his senior yr and thought…maybe I’m misinterpreting this column. His long TD pass for each game…his shortest all season was 25 yards. His second shortest (of the long TDs) was 35. 13 games…all had a TD of at least 25 years. (67 longest)
2. He consistently throws a beautiful deep ball. Even in college his ball placement was nearly perfect. His timing with Addison has me really excited to to see what he’s developed with DJ and Pickens...and hopefully Austin.
3. If I have one critique it’s that he threw off his back foot a lot even while in the pocket (but with very good touch and accuracy). But in the day and age of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, is that even still a thing? I’m sure they’re working on mechanics, but I find it reassuring he’s able to make off balance throws so accurately.
4. The reverse spin move he did when escaping the pocket against the Ravens last year when he threw the TD to Najee…he’s done that a lot. That back shoulder spin seem to be instinctual…nice.
5. He uses the middle of the field regularly. Even in college, the seam, skinny post…he was very effective using that part of the filed.
6. Based on what I’ve seen I think we can expect a lot of QB sneaks and KP diving for the pylon or first down marker while reaching to ball forward. (Those both seemed to be themes)
5. He’s a winner
So much has been made of him going against the non-starters in preseason, and the ACC isn’t known as the toughest conference, but what he brings is hard to defend. I don’t care how good the competition, it’s hard to defend a perfectly timed, placed pass, and that’s what he does again, and again, and again. If he improves at reading defenses, pocket presence and has time to throw, he’s going to score A LOT of points. And we already know he’s putting in the effort to improve.
I predict he’ll be the Steelers MVP this year. We have a real winner.