Click on this link to find a video posted by the EpitomeOfYinzer, a Twitter account that stars a true yinzer and Steelers fan.

“Throw it, Kenny, you bleeping piece of bleep! You no good piece of bleep!”

That was this yinzer’s reaction to a play in which Kenny Pickett, the Steelers’ second-year quarterback, failed to throw a pass and, instead, was sacked during what would be a 13-10 loss to the Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday. Take a gander at that living room. Outside of the flatscreen television and the smartphone sitting on the coffee table, it looks like someone opened a time capsule from the 1980s.

Maybe even 1983, when that yinzer and his family were probably watching Cliff Stoudt quarterback the Steelers offense. I fondly remember that ’83 team that finished 10-6 and won the old AFC Central Division title. Not long after a disappointing blowout loss to the Raiders in the divisional round, Stoudt signed a deal to play for the Birmingham Stallions of the upstart United States Football League. Stoudt was later greeted by a plethora of snowballs when he returned to old Three Rivers Stadium the following spring to take on the Pittsburgh Maulers.

I just assumed at the time that those Pittsburgh sports fans in attendance at TRS simply felt betrayed by Stoudt’s defection. However, after researching Stoudt’s stat line from the ’83 campaign, I now think folks were just angry at him for having the nerve to come back to Pittsburgh in any capacity.

You see, Stoudt became the first player in Steelers history to replace a franchise quarterback during that ’83 campaign, and he just wasn’t good at it. In 16 appearances, including 15 starts, Stoudt completed 197 of 381 passes for 2,531 yards, 12 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. You read that one number correctly: Stoudt threw 12 touchdowns in 16 games.

His passer rating was 60.6, he averaged 6.7 yards per pass attempt and was sacked on 11.8 percent of his dropbacks.

The Steelers had the 27th-ranked passing offense in the NFL in 1983.

Technically, Terry Bradshaw, the franchise quarterback Stoudt replaced in ’83, had yet to retire; he was out nursing his elbow back to health after having what would turn out to be unsuccessful offseason surgery. Bradshaw appeared in one half of one game during that ’83 campaign and officially called it a career in the summer of 1984.

Fast-forward 40 years later, and Pickett is now the first person to replace a Steelers’ franchise quarterback since Stoudt did it. OK, technically, it was veteran Mitch Trubisky who replaced the retired Ben Roethlisberger at the start of the 2022 campaign. Heck, for the sake of truly repeating history involving elbow injuries, you could say that it was Mason Rudolph who officially became the first Steelers quarterback to try and replace Roethlisberger back in 2019.

But who are we kidding? Pickett is that guy, and he became that guy the moment the Steelers picked him in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Even though it’s his second year as Pittsburgh’s starter, I think it’s almost eerie how Pickett has celebrated the 40th-anniversary of Stoudt’s lone year as the man under center (it literally was under center in those days–Chuck Noll didn’t believe in the shotgun until 1989).

Through 10 starts, Pickett has completed 170 of 281 passes for 1,722 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions. You read that one number correctly: Pickett has thrown six touchdowns in 10 games. He is on pace to throw 10 touchdowns in 17 games–or two less than Stoudt did in 16 games 40 years ago.

Pickett currently has a passer rating of 79.6, is averaging 6.1 yards per pass attempt and has been sacked seven percent of the time–none of those numbers are all that great in the modern era.

The Steelers currently have the 31st-ranked passing attack in the NFL.

If you really want a stat that truly blows your mind, here goes: As per CBS Sports, there have been 315 quarterbacks who have attempted 500 passes or more since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970. Of those 315 quarterbacks, Pickett, with 13 touchdown passes in 670 career attempts, has the lowest touchdown percentage at 1.9.

That’s pretty freaking bad. Maybe that’s why I don’t appreciate watching Pickett as a 51-year-old fan nearly as much as I enjoyed watching Stoudt when I was 11. I now know too much. I’ve seen too much. I get what bad quarterbacking looks like, and I don’t think it’s ever looked this bad from one Steelers player with this big of a sample size–23 games.

But while I might be shocked at how bad Pickett has been, I’m certainly not surprised that he has been bad. It’s not because I assumed he would be when Pittsburgh drafted him. It’s just how it’s historically gone for teams trying to replace Hall of Fame passers. It’s not easy, and the next guy up to bat has failed far more often than he has succeeded.

It took the Steelers 20 years to find Roethlisberger after Bradshaw, and that meant a lot of quarterbacks had to spend time in the barrel when it came to receiving vitriol from the fans.

Mark Malone, who actually guided the Steelers to the AFC title game in his first year as the starting quarterback, was so hated by 1987 that a fan broke into Three Rivers Stadium and got arrested over it.

Bubby Brister, who helped the Steelers win a wildcard playoff game in 1989, kind of avoided such harsh treatment, but just barely.

Neil O’Donnell hasn’t been heard from since Super Bowl XXX.

Kordell Stewart, who took the Steelers to two AFC Championship Games, was often the victim of racial slurs and vicious rumors about his personal life.

Tommy Maddox had garbage thrown on his lawn.

And I already mentioned Stoudt and those snowballs.

The weird thing is all of those quarterbacks accomplished more than Pickett ever has–even Stoudt, despite his horrendous offensive output in ’83. Yet, just try and put most of the blame on the golden boy from Pitt. Go ahead, just try it.

You will be met with resistance. It’s different now. It’s the social media age. People want to take a hardline side on every topic. Everyone is either a supporter or a hater. Everyone is either pro or anti. There is no room to change one’s mind after it’s made up. There is no room for nuanced discussion unless it’s to promote one’s own agenda.

It can’t be that Pickett is just bad. It’s got to be Matt Canada, the Steelers offensive coordinator who was fired on Tuesday after two-and-half years at the helm. Who was the Steelers offensive coordinator in 1983? Did they even have one? If so, did anyone actually know he was alive?

Who was the Bubster’s OC? For that matter, who was Bradshaw’s offensive coordinator? Speaking of Bradshaw, he was treated so harshly by the fans early in his career that he has yet to truly get over it.

And he’s in the Hall of Fame.

Anyway, back to Canada. While he was horrible at his job, I have a hard time believing that the gap between Pickett being this bad and being even competent is so small that a new OC would do the trick.

These things usually aren’t as complicated as we make them out to be.

If someone looks like a bad quarterback and plays like a bad quarterback, he’s likely a bad quarterback.

It’s worth remembering that the quarterback prospects from the 2022 NFL Draft were considered to be suspect before Canada had a connection with any of them.

The Steelers still did the right thing in taking a chance on Pickett, but if he does turn out to be a bust, coaching will likely have had nothing to do with it.

Most quarterbacks simply don’t have what it takes to excel in the NFL.

I’m not 100 percent sure Pickett is a bad quarterback, but I’m closer to believing that than I ever was before.

EpitomeOfYinzer’s Pickett vitriol was spot-on during Sunday’s Steelers loss. No, maybe he shouldn’t have called Pickett a no-good piece of bleep, but his living room has seen a lot of things throughout the years–including bad quarterback play by the Steelers.

EpitomeOfYinzer knows too much. He’s seen too much.

He gets it.

Maybe we should all fall in line when it comes to our criticism of Kenny Pickett.

It’s okay to say that he just might be a bad quarterback, and you don’t even have to break into Acrisure Stadium to make your opinion known to the world.