Sarcasm Alert: The following paragraphs may contain sarcasm, which the Surgeon General hasn't really talked about much, but I personally have noticed sometimes confuses some people.

While we talk extensively this time of year about the rookies and new additions via free agency, the biggest issue on the team is really the development of Kenny Pickett. The QB is the straw that stirs the drink and if Pickett isn't up to it, it's not going to matter a whole lot who we surround him with. That's the reality, and it's a concerning reality because New England is going through a similar rebuild, and it hasn't been going super well, despite having an obviously superior young QB.

New England finished last season with a losing record at 8-9, even with the mad scientist Bill Belichick at the helm and Mac Jones at QB, and that should concern the Steelers because Jones is clearly a way better QB than Pickett. It's simply unreasonable to think the Steelers are going to have more success with Pickett at QB than the Patriots had with Jones in his second year, when everyone knows that Jones is a better QB, and the Patriots overall are a well run organization

If the Patriots can't win with a 2nd year QB who won a college football championship, how can the Steelers expect to win with a QB who in four seasons as a starter never won a single championship? Football is all about winning championships, and the QB is the most important player on the team, so he's obviously individually responsible for whether the team wins a championship or not. Just look at history: Joe Burrow won it all in 2019, Trevor Lawrence in 2018, Tua Tagovailoa in 2017, Deshaun Watson in 2016. Clearly winning a championship is correlated with great QB play. Jones won a CFB championship, and Pickett didn't, so clearly Jones is better.

The frustrating thing about all this is the Steelers actually had the chance to flip the tables. The Steelers drafted TWO players from the University of Georgia, with neither of them being the one guy they actually needed. Despite being in a hopeless position of having a non-championship-winning QB, the Steelers for some reason passed in the 4th round on a QB who is not only a championship winning QB like Joe Burrow and Deshaun Watson, but has actually won back to back championships! So now Stetson Bennett goes to the Rams, who are thus pretty much guaranteed to dominate the next decade with him winning winning multiple league MVP's, while the Steelers console themselves with the fact that they have three guys who played with him in college...

What? You say that Stetson Bennett winning back to back college football championships doesn't mean he's a transcendent QB? You say that Mac Jones winning a championship doesn't make him a better QB than Pickett, who didn't? Don't be a silly goose...

Ok, the sarcasm is done now. I've got it all out. The point is hopefully clear too. This time of year while draft evaluations are fresh in all our minds (and let's face it, not much of actual interest is going on) it's a good time to observe an interesting phenomenon. Somehow, what we all know about QB evaluation during the draft process magically vanishes when we start evaluating and comparing NFL QB's. Tom Brady's rings become a huge deal, even though Stetson Bennett's championships don't mean squat. It's somehow forgotten that football is a team sport and championships are a measure of team success, while QB's can and should be individually evaluated by their physical abilities, technical talents, and individual performance.

For those of you who really care about the Pickett vs. Jones comparison, I think Pickett is actually a decent bit better than Jones, but the actual point here really is about the role of championships in evaluating QB's. The next time you get into a conversation about which QB is better or who is the best, remember that the idea of drafting Stetson Bennett first overall is absurd and the idea of evaluating NFL QB's based on the number of championships their teams have won is equally absurd. QB's are evaluated by things like arm strength, mobility, field awareness, accuracy, timing, etc., not championships.