Player: QB Russell Wilson
Stock Value: Purchased
Reasoning: The Steelers’ completely remade quarterback room now features Russell Wilson at the head of the class. They signed him to a one-year contract, a situation enabled by Denver’s offset language in its contract with him. The Broncos still have to pay him $39 million this season, minus the obligatory minimum contract the Steelers gave him. But Pittsburgh also added Justin Fields, and both quarterbacks are under one-year contract for now.
Russell Wilson is your Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback for the 2024 season—unless he’s not. He didn’t declare himself the starter when he spoke to reporters, though then Kenny Pickett still lurked in the room.
With Pickett gone, according to reports, the Steelers are committed to Wilson at the starter in 2024, Fields the backup. Both quarterbacks have three consecutive losing seasons, but Wilson otherwise has a borderline Hall of Fame resume.
Last season with the Broncos, Wilson threw for 3,070 yards on 397-for-447 passing. More significantly, he threw 26 touchdowns, more than the Steelers did as a whole since 2022. He also kept his interception total low with just eight on the year.
The Seattle Seahawks gave him up for a king’s ransom in 2022, the Broncos not a team ready to compete. Wilson played through injury for most of that first season and told reporters recently that he felt more himself last year. The improved numbers suggest as much, but the Broncos still lost more games than they won.
Can the Steelers plop 2023 Russell Wilson into this lineup and go 11-6 or better with a playoff win? That seems to be what they’re banking on to end a seven-year postseason win drought. Wilson can put the ball in the end zone, and he protects the ball as well as they had done with Pickett.
But if he struggles, then they have Justin Fields lurking in the wings. One wonders if they might not even try to have their cake and eat it, too, with a Fields package. Wilson is in his age-36 season. One can easily imagine that if he doesn’t turn his career around in 2024, then he never will.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
