Quarterback is arguably the ultimate leadership position in professional sports, and leadership happens to be one of the biggest questions that new Pittsburgh Steelers QB Russell Wilson faces. Despite the fact that he’s a been-there, done-that guy with championship hardware, many wonder if he can lead, though not if he can work.
Those questions have followed Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks to the Denver Broncos and now to the Steel City. They were less prominent in Seattle while he was there, but it was probably the main storyline with the Broncos. And now that he’s in Pittsburgh, many wonder if he can simply be one of the guys.
“One of the issues Russell’s had over the years”, Albert Breer said on The Herd, “is with relating to his teammates. I think one of the superpowers of a lot of the truly great quarterbacks is they can be the celebrity over here and then over here be a normal guy in the locker room”.
He pointed out that the likes of Tom Brady, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes manage this very well. Wilson has never had this reputation, at least not since his early playing days. Even those in Seattle talk about how teammates stopped buying into his rah-rah persona. Two teams later, those concerns are still very much there.
“That’s really who they are, and that’s how they come off to their teammates [as]. The ability to be a regular guy is something that Russell [Wilson]’s never really had”, Breer said, “which I think has caused him problems with some of these teams”.
“Can he break down those walls with his teammates in Pittsburgh?”, he added of Wilson. “I think that will be a very real question. How do his coaches receive him? That’s a real question”.
Of course, there’s only so much Wilson can do at this point. The Steelers are only just opening OTAs, the first time he’ll have to work with most of his teammates. He did hold a workout early on after signing that TE Pat Freiermuth seemed to find significant.
Really, the Steelers are in a getting-to-know-you phase on offense. They could have upwards of about five new starters on offense from last season. Odds are you’ll have two new offensive linemen, plus Russell Wilson at quarterback, and perhaps two wide receivers.
That’s actually a good thing for Wilson, including the new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith. And perhaps it’s notable that they signed Wilson with Smith’s input. Smith didn’t inherit him as their quarterback—in fact, they traded Kenny Pickett, their previous starter, immediately afterward.
This may be bold of me, but I do believe that Russell Wilson is capable of being a human being. Part of being a human being is understanding your circumstances, and Wilson surely understands the stakes. He knows that he needs to prove he can still be a franchise quarterback, and that includes being a leader. He may have gotten a little weird there for a while after finding early success, but for the first time since his rookie year, he’s never been more “one of the guys” than he is now.
