Steelers' Kenny Pickett Is The Center Of A Massive Bet Between Two Big Media Stars

Pittsburgh Steelers second-year quarterback, Kenny Pickett has been under a lot of scrutiny during the 2023 NFL season. His accuracy has surely taken a dip since his rookie year, and he doesn't seem to be seeing the field the way starting quarterback in year two should be. His production has been low in 2023, yet he still finds a way to make important plays in the fourth quarter to keep the Steelers on track to make the postseason. 

Steelers' Pickett May Cost Celebrity 20 Thousand Dollars

On the most recent episode of Barstool Sports Advisors from the Barstool Sports NetworkI, it was disclosed that the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy and Steelers super-fan, Jersey Jerry have a substantially large wager riding on the shoulders of Pittsburgh's second-year quarterback. 

Portnoy, who is an avid Boston sports fan, obviously supports the New England Patriots while Jerry is well known for being a Steelers fan and is the co-host of the Steel Here Podcast with Kevin Adams. 

Each party still believes in their quarterback and thinks they will find success at the NFL level, even though both players have been highly scrutinized. The bet comes down to which quarterback has the better season in 2023 between Pickett and the Patriots' Mac Jones. Their play is broken down into three separate categories for the bet. Yards, how many games their team wins, and touchdowns minus interceptions. Whichever side wins two out of the three categories wins the bet. 

If Jerry wins the bet, Portnoy will have to pay him 20 thousand dollars. On the other hand, if Portnoy wins the bet, Jerry has to sell 100 of Portnoy's Brick Watches, which come from a company he started recently. For some reason, Portnoy still has confidence in Jones which he made clear while trashing Pickett. 

"I know people are going to say I'm crazy. I think Mac can be successful. He's better than Jerry's boy [Kenny Pickett]. It is crazy that bet we made, we picked the two like worst quarterbacks. Anybody else in the league we'd be in a runaway freight train. I mean each guy you look in the third quarter and they barely have 100 yards passing, it's crazy. Shocking. They're like seven for 12 for 62 yards deep into the third."

Portnoy is right, Pickett hasn't been lighting up the box score in 2023. However, he has been able to find ways to win which is the most important thing. Pickett has an excuse for his lack of productivity up until this point, which is that the Steelers Offensive Coordinator, Matt Canada has been one of the worst play callers in the NFL since he has come into the league. His poor play-calling has held back both the running game and the passing game, which hurts Pickett's production. 

We are approaching Week 10 of the NFL season, which means we have passed the halfway point. If the bet were to end today, Jerry would win the bet and be 20 thousand dollars richer. Prior to their Week 10 games, Pickett has six touchdowns to just four interceptions and Jones has ten touchdowns to nine interceptions. Therefore Pickett wins that category, but it is close. 

Jones is currently beating Pickett in yards, as he has 1,861 compared to just 1,490 from Pickett. However, keep in mind that the Patriots haven't had their bye week yet and Pickett has had to exit two games due to injury. They would be tied so far, with the tie breaker being team victories which goes in Pickett's favor. The Steelers are currently 5-3 and would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. 

They are fighting to stay in front of the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals while trying to take the AFC North lead back from the Baltimore Ravens. The Patriots, on the other hand, sit at 2-7 and are hoping for losses so they can get as high of a draft pick as possible. The debate between these two quarterbacks will be a little clearer when the Steelers host the Patriots on Thursday Night Football in Week 14.