Retiring Steelers GM Kevin Colbert shares if Kenny Pickett hand size caused any concern

There was a lot of talk about Kenny Pickett’s hand measurement heading towards the 2022 NFL Draft but as he became the No. 1 quarterback off the board, it’s clear that talk was just wasted breath. The Pittsburgh Steelers chose the Pittsburgh Panthers star with the No. 20 overall pick on night one, placing high hopes on the quarterback who could take over after the long Ben Roethlisberger era.

Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert, who is retiring after the dust settles on the draft, discussed how much of a factor the organization considered Pickett’s hand size of 8.5 inches to be before drafting him.

“Honestly, I never paid attention to that,” Colbert said to ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio. “We look at the results. We watch Kenny play in our environment. . . . Can he throw the football? Absolutely. Did he have an excessive fumble rate? No, he didn’t. We just judge it on how he played.”

Although Pickett does have the smallest hand size of any active NFL quarterback, his 67.3% completion rate in 2021 speaks for itself. Although he had 26 career fumbles at Pitt, he only had three in his final season.

Pickett has a massive battle coming up versus more veteran Steelers quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph.

Contract details released for Kenny Pickett

Pickett will sign a fully guaranteed, four-year, $14 million contract with the Steelers. The deal comes with a $7.4 million signing bonus and a fifth-year option for 2026, according to Spotrac.

In five seasons with the Panthers, Pickett appeared in 52 games, throwing for 12,303 yards with 81 touchdowns and 32 interceptions while completing 62.4 percent of his passes before electing to enter the 2022 NFL Draft. Although not considered a major running threat, he also added 809 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns.

Pickett had the season of his life in 2021, finishing as a Heisman Trophy finalist while completing 334 of his 497 passes for 4,319 yards, 42 touchdowns and just seven interceptions while completing 67.3 percent of his passes. Prior to last season, Pickett has never thrown more than 13 touchdowns in a season in his first three years as the starter with the Panthers before exploding onto the national scene over the last eight months.

A former three-star recruit in the class of 2017, he was the No. 811 overall player in the nation per the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average. The Oakhurst, New Jersey native also ranked as the No. 48 quarterback and No. 19 player in his home state after playing at Ocean Township High School.