Though no team has won more Super Bowl championships than the Pittsburgh Steelers, their last win was at the end of the 2008 season. They appeared in the game two years later but fell short against the Green Bay Packers. With Ben Roethlisberger retiring two years ago, there are no players left on the roster from those teams that competed for Super Bowls. But now, with the pending addition of QB Russell Wilson, the Steelers are adding that championship pedigree back to their roster.
Arthur Moats discussed Wilson and the leadership he could bring to the team on his latest episode of the Arthur Moats Experience.
“We haven’t had this vibe since seven [Roethlisberger], in terms of not on-field production, I’m just talking about a true leader,” Moats said. “Like when you talk about a guy that’s going to command the team, that type.”
The closest thing the Steelers have had to that was when Mitch Trubisky was signed and briefly viewed as QB1 in Pittsburgh. He invited a bunch of teammates to work out with him in Florida. Roethlisberger used to do something similar with his lake house in Georgia.
A lot was made over the Steelers’ apparent lack of leadership last season, particularly on the offensive side of the ball late in the season. Kenny Pickett was out injured at the time, and the Steelers were in the midst of a three-game losing streak. WRs Diontae Johnson and George Pickens were generating national media headlines for all the wrong reasons, and many were criticizing the fading tradition of the “Steeler Way.”
While there is no way Wilson could fully understand the Steelers’ tradition having not been in the locker room yet, he does bring championship pedigree and leadership to the organization.
“These guys are gonna get a chance to be around somebody that has actually won it all, has actually had a chance to go back and has lost it,” Moats said. “This is the dude that, when you talk about just every emotion or anything that could potentially come up this season, he’s been a part of it in some way, shape, or form prior to this and has found ways to overcome it.”
This is perhaps even more important than it was in the 2023 season. They may not have been high-impact players for the team, but many pointed to C Mason Cole and WR Allen Robinson II as leaders on the offense. Both of those players have been released by the Steelers.
Wilson has been a polarizing figure over the last few years, and there are questions about his ability to connect with the younger generation of players given his highly polished public persona. Some of his former teammates have openly criticized him as a teammate. However different his leadership style may be, there is no denying he brings experience and pedigree to an offense that sorely needs it.
