The reported signing of QB Russell Wilson comes as a bit of a surprise. Since the 2023 season ended, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed that the 2024 starting QB is already on the roster, team president Art Rooney II called Kenny Pickett a winner, and GM Omar Khan expressed full faith in Pickett.
Rooney also did say that they wouldn’t close the door on any possibilities as they look to make the team better and explore all avenues. That is, of course, what they have done with the pending signing of Wilson. Rich Eisen discussed the addition on his show and is still firmly latching onto those previous bits of information about the belief in Pickett.
“There’s no guarantee Russ is the starter,” Eisen said in a clip of his show posted on X. “I am telling everybody this and you’re seeing it already from the conversations you’re seeing out there on this story. This is gonna be a competition.”
While others around the media landscape have stated that Wilson would not have agreed to come to Pittsburgh if he wasn’t darn sure he would be the starter, Eisen is choosing to continue operating under the previous assumption that the Steelers still very much believe in Pickett. It was a tough sell before they signed Wilson, and now it is almost unimaginable to think of Pickett as anything but a backup.
So other than listening to the old reports and information, what is Eisen’s reasoning?
“They’re paying him $1.2 million. They haven’t given up an ounce of draft capital to get him. They can easily tell him, ‘Here’s a clipboard, here’s an earbud,'” Eisen said. “Certainly if Kenny Pickett shows up and performs like the first-round draft choice he was, and the Steelers really want him to work out. They don’t want a first-round draft choice from two years ago to be flushed down the toilet.”
I will admit, I was somewhat surprised to see Wilson reportedly agree to play for a veteran minimum contract. I understand why he is, with the Denver Broncos picking up the tab for 2024, but it does signify a very low level of commitment on Pittsburgh’s part. If there are any issues or struggles at all, they technically have more invested in Pickett than they do in Wilson. He could be relegated to a backup without any of the pressure on the Steelers that comes with being wrong on a major investment.
So the Steelers will probably continue to publicly push that it is a competition, and maybe even give Pickett the first starting reps in camp to back that up, but Wilson has potential Hall-of-Fame pedigree, and it shouldn’t be long before he is the unquestioned starter. Eisen sees things differently.
“I think he does not start the whole year,” Eisen said of Russell Wilson. “I don’t think he’s guaranteed to start Week 1.”
And when asked outright if he does think Wilson will start Week 1, his answer was “no.”
Like it or not, this is going to be an ongoing talking point for the next four or five months until the start of training camp and the preseason.
