Cornerback Richard Sherman is known for speaking his mind, and most recently he gave his thoughts on Pittsburgh Steelers first-round quarterback Kenny Pickett. Sherman said he does not see Pickett being the Steelers' long-term quarterback, and his reasoning has to do with what Pickett wears on the field.
Sherman said:
"Do I think he's the quarterback of the future? I don't know. It's hard for me to trust a quarterback who wears gloves all the time. It's just different. It's just different. I just, I have hard time with it."
Sherman did have some good things to say about the former Pitt QB, praising his ability and complimenting what the Steelers have been able to do with players over the years.
"But he slings it. He's effective and we'll see how effective he is in Pittsburgh. They do a great job developing guys," Sherman said. "They haven't had another quarterback under center starting consistently since Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, Ben's been there for what, 13 years, 14 years, something like that? And so, so that'll be interesting."
Pickett's hands have been a topic of conversation, even before he was drafted into the league. His hands measured 8.5 inches at the NFL Combine, and at Pitt's pro day his hands measured 8.625 inches.
The young quarterback uses the gloves for a better grip on the ball, as his hands are smaller than nearly every QB to enter the NFL in the last 35 years.
However, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin has no worries about Pickett's hand size. He said what he has seen from Pickett overshadows any measurements.
"I potentially was capable of buying into that if I didn't watch him play college football in Pittsburgh, and dealing with the elements that comes with playing in this environment," Tomlin said on The Rich Eisen Show. "You can get into the hand size thing, or you can just look at how he performed in a variety of conditions, and we have those conditions here in Pittsburgh. So, there's very little speculation from our perspective about how he might handle the ball in inclement weather, wet days, etcetera."
With Roethlisberger retiring in the offseason, the quarterback conversation in Pittsburgh is a lot different than it has been in the last two decades. The Steelers also have Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph on their quarterback depth chart.
