Landing a quarterback with nearly 200 career starts, a Super Bowl championship, nine trips to the Pro Bowl and one All-Pro season is quite the addition for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who entered the offseason with a major question mark at the most important position in sports.
Landing that same quarterback for the veteran minimum after he is coming off of a 3,070-yard passing season with 26 touchdowns is even better.
That’s exactly what the Pittsburgh Steelers did with quarterback Russell Wilson in free agency, getting the future Hall of Fame quarterback on a one-year, $1.21 million deal — the veteran minimum — after he was designated as a post-June 1 release by the Denver Broncos after just two seasons and a record-setting contract extension. In the process, the Broncos will be on the hook for the other $37 million Wilson was set to earn in 2024.
The deal for the Steelers is a steal, and it’s not surprising that CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin tabbed it as the “best bargain” in the NFL free agency window so far. Hard to believe it will be topped, either.
“Is Wilson past his prime? The numbers and eye test suggest as much. But Pittsburgh is literally paying him less than what the Buffalo Bills are paying Mitch Trubisky to sit behind Josh Allen,” Benjamin writes for CBSSports.com. “At 35, with a pretty deep ball still in the arsenal, the ex-Seahawks star is built to operate the Steelers’ old-school offense, leaning on the run and play-action. Odds are Pittsburgh will be back to square one in a year or two, but Wilson at least registers as an upgrade on Kenny Pickett.
“If he simply proves competent, keeping the club in the playoff mix a la Baker Mayfield with the Buccaneers, he’ll have easily out-earned this trial-run deal.”
Wilson might be past his prime, sure. He’s 35 years old after all. No real spring chicken in football years. But the numbers don’t exactly suggest that as Benjamin stated. Wilson had a strong 2023 season and was only benched because of a contract dispute with the Broncos and a clash with head coach Sean Payton, who seemingly never wanted him as his quarterback from the start in the Mile High City.
Now, after being designated as a post-June 1 release for salary cap purposes, Wilson resurfaces in Pittsburgh at an important time for the franchise.
Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff game in seven years and hasn’t exactly figured out the quarterback position since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement following the 2021 season. Of course, it’s hard for teams to transition from a franchise icon like Roethlisberger. The Steelers have had three different starting quarterbacks in Trubisky, Pickett and Mason Rudolph since Roethlisberger retired.
None have proven to the be answer, which is why there was interest in Wilson. Add his affordable price tag and it made too much sense in the end.
Adding a quarterback with the resume of Wilson for relative pennies in the NFL landscape is a great job by GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin. Will he be the answer at the position the Steelers need? That remains to be seen.
But his veteran minimum deal gives the Steelers plenty of flexibility financially to build up the team around him in all three phases in an effort to try and win now. Quite the bargain.
