The Pittsburgh Steelers had quite an injury scare during the early stages of their Week 14 home loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
Kenny Pickett suffered a concussion during the Steelers’ first drive of the divisional showdown. The rookie quarterback was brought down hard by Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith, and he was slow to get up after being sacked on the third down play.
The former Pittsburgh Panthers passer was cleared to return to the game, although he wound up anchoring a mere one more drive on offense before being ruled out for the remainder of the contest.
During a press conference on Thursday, Pickett revealed that after Pittsburgh’s second drive of the divisional matchup, he touched base with doctors on the sideline and noted to them that he was experiencing symptoms of a concussion.
“I thought I was good to go, felt good, and then when I got back out there and started running, and the vision started coming into play more, and I'm moving and things are going fast, that's when symptoms started to come up, and I had to go inside, and they ruled me out,” Pickett said. “We knew what it was after I started getting back into play. It’s definitely the right call to get me out and get me in protocol.
“I had some symptoms last week, but cleared up now, so I feel good to go.”
Pickett later entered the concussion protocol, and he was sidelined from each of the Steelers' three practices ahead of their Week 15 road contest against the Carolina Panthers. He has since cleared the NFL’s five-step concussion protocol and barring any major changes in the coming days, he will be under center against the Las Vegas Raiders.
For Week 16, Pickett will be donning a helmet that features more padding on the back, and he will also play with a visor for the first time this season.
“There are two options with this helmet,” Pickett said. “There's the lineman facemask, where it kind of blocks my vision a little bit. I don't really like it.
“I tried that in practice. With the visor for this facemask, the facemask gap is too wide. A fist can literally go through it. I don't want to get punched in the face on Saturday. So I was like, ‘I'll probably wear the visor and we'll be good to go.'”
Overall, Pickett has thrown four touchdown passes and eight interceptions in 10 total games played in the 2022 campaign.
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