When the Pittsburgh Steelers were on the clock for their second third-round pick, they turned the card in for NC State LB Payton Wilson. A number of people were surprised that the reigning Dick Butkus Award winner and All-American linebacker was still there. After all, he wasn’t an undersized player or someone coming from a small FCS school. Were the medicals so bad that teams viewed him as untouchable?
When general manager Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin held their post-draft press conference, Tomlin was asked about Wilson being on the board that late in the draft. He did admit to some surprise per video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel.
“You know, I think you could characterize it as surprised,” Tomlin said. “I mean, he is an award-winning linebacker, Butkus Award winner. Had an opportunity to get really familiar with him down in Mobile as well. But the linebackers themselves weren’t coming off the board at that juncture. So sometimes they make runs on positions at different times, and it hadn’t been a lot of linebackers to that point. I think he was number five or so.”
No off-ball linebackers were taken in the first round, and only one was taken in the second round. The third round was the start of the run at the position, and Wilson was the fifth true off-ball linebacker taken in that round. So, even with the concerns about his knee injuries, it wasn’t like the entire league was shunning him personally. The position just was not being drafted heavily up until that point.
Not long after the post-draft press conference, Tomlin joined ESPN to talk about how the weekend went. He again was asked about Payton Wilson, and he went further into his overall feelings on his newest linebacker.
“We’re really excited about Payton,” Tomlin said. “When we turn his tape on, we see him making all the types of plays you need linebackers to make. He’s a volume tackle player. He makes plays in the passing game from a coverage perspective via interception and pass breakup. He gets after the quarterback in the blitz game. He’s got a very well-rounded skill set. He’s a fluid mover… We had to get comfortable with his medical, and we were. We brought him in on a pre-draft visit to allow our medical experts to really get a good evaluation of him. We talked to him about his injury history. We were at a place of comfort, and so from that perspective, we’re really excited about having him.”
It was never a question of whether Payton Wilson is a good linebacker. Wilson had a spectacular 2023 with 139 total tackles, 17.5 tackles for a loss, six sacks, six pass breakups, three interceptions, and one interception returned for a touchdown. The question was simply could Wilson be a healthy linebacker in the NFL?
It started in high school when Wilson tore his ACL. Then, as a true freshman at NC State, he suffered another knee injury that cost him the entire season. On top of that, he’s had issues with both shoulders that required surgeries prior to the 2021 college season. Then, he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury after only two games that season.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport talked about Wilson’s extensive injury history when the Steelers made the pick. He’s been told that Wilson does not have an ACL in one of his knees and that more than half the teams in the league don’t see him ever getting a second contract.
That would explain why Wilson fell so far into the third round. However, Wilson hasn’t missed time in 2022 or 2023. So the Steelers feel that the medical risk after getting him checked out in Pittsburgh is far outweighed by the reward of drafting the linebacker Brian Baldinger calls “the best linebacker in this draft.”
