Pittsburgh Steelers Running Back Jaylen Warren Throws Major Shade At Former QB Kenny Pickett

The Pittsburgh Steelers are going to look far different in 2024 after shipping off former first-round QB Kenny Pickett and bringing in Russell Wilson.

And if you ask running back Jaylen Warren, the difference is already palpable.

Warren went on teammate Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast and had some harsh criticism of his former teammate.

“Oh it’s a night and day difference from last year, the leadership speaks volumes,” Warren said of the difference in leadership from Pickett to new quarterbacks Wilson and Justin Fields.

Yiiiiikes.

Pittsburgh selected Pickett, a Pitt Panthers product, with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. But he never really got up to speed in the NFL. In 25 games, Pickett completed 62.6 percent of his passes for 4,474 yards, just 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Shortly after being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, reports surfaced that claimed his off-field demeanor was part of the reason for his failure.

“The Steelers made the move because of the way Pickett was poorly handling the arrival of Russell Wilson,” said Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“That came on the heels of Pickett’s behavior last season when he refused to dress as the emergency third quarterback in Seattle in Week 17,” he added.

Pickett then denied those reports in his introductory press conference in Philly.

“It is what it is. It was behind closed doors. I’m confident in the way that I handled it. I handled it the way I should’ve, but I’m excited to be here,” he said.

He then expounded on the Week 17 incident.

“It goes back to a lot of the communication that was behind closed doors… There was a plan there for that game. It went down exactly the way it was planned to go down that entire week… It is what it is.”

Clearly Pickett and Warren did not see things through the same lens.