Kenny Pickett doesn't have any hard feelings toward Ben Roethlisberger after the former Pittsburgh Steelers star said he wasn't rooting for the 2022 first-round pick to succeed immediately.

"He's honest," Pickett said. "He's out front about it, and he's a fan now and he's pulling for us and it was really cool to hear him say that. ... I think we're just going to continue to build on that relationship.

"I'm excited to go into Year 2 with another guy in my corner."

When Roethlisberger recently hosted Pickett on his podcast, "Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger," the retired Steeler admitted to feeling conflicted about the rookie taking over the starting job.

"I'll be completely honest, I'll be super transparent here, and I'm gonna get blasted," Roethlisberger said. "I probably shouldn't say this, but who cares at this point. I wouldn't say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but when someone comes to replace you, I still feel like I had it, I hope he doesn't come ball out. Because then it's like, Ben who?"

Roethlisberger continued, telling Pickett: "Early on I didn't want you to succeed because you followed me up -- I didn't want it to happen. I think that's probably the selfishness of me, and I feel bad for it."