Film Study: How well did Kenny Pickett play for the Philadelphia Eagles?

all right let's talk about Kenny picket of the Philadelphia Eagles now of course you know was traded from the Steelers after it didn't work out there and I was definitely interested in seeing how he was going to play here for Philadelphia the overall numbers haven't been particularly good in fact he's in the bla Gabbert zone of under 5 yards per attempt here but again if you know me I don't just look at box score numbers I like to watch the film so let's get into the film of all three games and talk about what he did well and what he did poor so first starting off with a play like this this is kind of what Kenny picket was known for in college and I think even at his best did a pretty good job at with the Steelers was just running the offense hitting the layups right when a guy was open he'd hit the guy who's open I know it doesn't sound like much but there is still some value in that especially when we're talking about you know just where picket at right now he's trying to be a backup he's not trying to be a starter the play you see on the screen is one where you can see how this route could work could get into a gap in coverage towards the top of the screen well okay let's see what happens picket is going to take the snap and look in that direction he fires in that direction it's a Well time throw right this is right around when the receiver is going to be as open as they can get picket puts this one on the money and they're able to pick up a first down on this play to be honest this is a lot of what I saw from Kenny picket I thought he did a pretty decent job again hitting the layups doing the simple stuff there's a lot more to football than just that but that is a a benefit like this plays another one where it's going to be a third down and four situation it's man coverage and this is another thing I think picket did well uh in this preseason for the Philadelphia Eagles where again the way to play is designed to work is you see the route on the screen piet's going to want to throw to definitely one that can work against this type of coverage so Piet takes a snap he's going to run a play action looks in that direction and is there a ton of Separation here not really but the good news is that the Philadelphia player has the inside leverage so there's a good angle for Picket to make this throw and that's why he's going to decide to do so and as you see puts it really right on the money and they're able to pick up a first down here on the third down and four so yeah I mean really good job here I would say by picket and then there are also stuff like this where the way this one is going to work is that it is a uh first couple things to note for one thing you're going to see on the bottom leand corner of the screen you can kind of see the edge of a player getting interviewed I did my best to crop it out but I can't crop the whole thing out given the way that it's framed they do these uh you know on picture interviews sometimes in the preseason especially in the second half not something I'm a fan of when I'm trying to make my videos but just in case you're wondering what that is that's what that is but anyway you see the concept on the screen and you can see how it could work right those over the-middle routes especially can often get open as there's a lot of traffic you know for the Minnesota players they're going to have to have a lot of communication making sure they each cover the right guy and when you have to communicate a lot often times that just takes extra time which can allow for someone to get open here though one pick it takes the snap it doesn't really work out that way way so he's going to scramble towards the outside doing a good job I would say because containment was given up on that side of the field still looking down field just doesn't love what he sees and so because of this he's going to just then try and scramble up and picks up five yards or so I think was about four yards actually but you know I think this is something that coaches will like to see from picket is that he isn't someone who too often makes many bad decisions a lot of his turnovers usually came from the throw not being quite there or trying to fit it through uh a window because he had to because that was the only option kind of thing but again you can do stuff like this uh kind of I think part of maybe what they like about picket as a potential backup is that he can be someone who can do some of the stuff that Jaylen Herz can do this one's going to be a play action he's going to uh you know roll out towards the top of the screen there's several routes in that direction but you see for Picket when he runs this play really the you most underneath route that's where he's looking I got to be honest I I wonder if one of the deeper routes uh actually could have been open sort of the middle uh dep route kind of looks open which that's one of the negatives of picket is the fact that he doesn't always see some of these things and you know make the more difficult throw sometimes he is looking for a completion I I mentioned his low yards per attempt numbers in the preseason he did have a pretty decent completion percentage though he does go for you know the higher completion type plays and as you see here he you know makes the throw hey it works out you got you know five or six yards that's what you're going for like certainly not a bad play by can he pick it by any means more of just a this is his play style this is what he does and he can make throws off balance so when I brought up the play of like well he can kind of do the stuff Herz can do that is you know part of what he can do although to be clear he is definitely no Jaylen Herz cuz like going over here I think my biggest issue I solv from Kenny picket was how often these plays just didn't ahead like this one's a Zone coverage play cover three Zone you see a receiver running a deep shot right here so again okay can see how this could work takes the snap he says oh hey one-on-one match up on the outside let me throw it in that direction and it's a good decision I mean you see how open this wide receiver is so this could be I don't know could this be a touchdown it could at least be a decent gain but instead this throw is just off and again it was kind of weird it almost looked like the receiver maybe could have like laid out for it weird play but the reality is most of these weren't hitting like the the high degree of difficulty plays were like operating at basically 0% in the preseason which is definitely his biggest downside so what do we take away from all this what does all of this mean well first let me just give my evaluation of kind of a recap of how I thought Kenny picket played he played okay uh he ran the offense relatively well was not really giving you much more other than that and wasn't really hitting the high degree of difficulty plays but also he is someone you can win games with I mean the Steelers did win some games with him they weren't great with him but they weren't a dumpster fire either with him although they ultimately wouldn't have Mason Rudolph so it's not like they were like you know uh it's not like they were doing great with him right obviously but my point is that he has a specific skill set that he is good at the easy kind of underneath stuff that makes me feel like he's going to be a backup in this league for a while but with the lack of uh giving you too much else I think you see why he wasn't able to make it work as a starter I'm going to give him like a five out of 10 for his preseason performance like I said it wasn't bad he just didn't give you a lot else You could argue maybe like a four I don't know a five out of 10 just for the performance feels fair but I definitely don't think that he is you know he's not coming for Jaylen herz's job anytime soon that was obviously never going to happen but I also just in general think that he's um you know a backup feels right and this is why he was kind of you know a big part of why most people didn't have him as a first round pick and the people who did like I think I remember I had him as like my 32nd ranked Prospect of that draft class so like just barely a first round pick um and you know uh there were still there still are some positives and you still do see the positives he's a very competent player he's not going to like do too many things that are stupid but uh you know so which again for backup quarterbacks getting that is good and getting a a couple you know cheap years of that for the Eagles that's not not a bad situation but uh yeah if the Eagles were getting him and hopes that if uh you know Jaylen Herz goes down for a season picket can you know rule things things and be a good starter for a while I just don't know if I see that happening but yeah those are kind of my thoughts on Kenny picket and uh what he brought to the Eagles in this preseason what do you think let me know in the comments 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