Former Pittsburgh Steelers RB and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis appeared on The Joe Starkey Show on 93.7 The Fan this morning, and Bettis is clearly a big fan of Russell Wilson. He believes that Wilson has the potential to be special in Pittsburgh’s offense in 2024.
“He can still play 100 percent. And he will be effective in this offense. He’s going to be good for this offense,” Bettis said.
He thinks the only way that Wilson doesn’t succeed this season is if the Steelers want to find out more about Justin Fields and don’t roll with Wilson as their primary starter.
“The only question is, what is the offensive game plan with two quarterbacks? What are you looking for, are you interested in finding out what both quarterbacks can do? Or is it just about who’s the best quarterback and we’re gonna play him and we’re gonna try to win championships with that one person. If that’s that’s the case, then Russell Wilson is the guy, and trust me, he’s going to be special. I really believe he has all the talent and the know-how and the skill set to be big time and this offense can allow him to do that and it’s not gonna ask him to do a whole lot because you’re gonna be able to run the football.”
Bettis also said that will open up play-action, and Wilson is “great” at play-action and will “definitely be cooking” if he’s the starter.
Wilson’s best years in Seattle came when he had a strong defense and a solid run game, and those are two things that he’ll have going for him in Pittsburgh. From the sound of it, the Steelers are going to roll with one quarterback, and they won’t spend this season trying to figure out what they have in the quarterback room. While Fields might be the quarterback of the future, the Steelers want to win now. With Wilson in pole position to start, he’s likely going to be Pittsburgh’s Week 1 starter unless he really struggles in training camp and the preseason.
Wilson’s coming off two below-average seasons in Denver, but his production last season tops anything the Steelers got out of their quarterback room. Even if he’s not the player he once was, he certainly should still be an upgrade over Kenny Pickett. As Bettis pointed out, the Steelers aren’t going to ask Wilson to do a lot. As long he makes the throws he has to, the Steelers can lean on a strong run game behind a revamped offensive line in Arthur Smith’s scheme to lead them to wins.
I wouldn’t necessarily go as far as to say that Wilson will be special this season, but there’s a good chance that he will play better than he has the last two seasons and help the Steelers reach another level on offense. Granted, that’s not saying much given just how bad the offense was over the past few seasons, but Wilson has almost all the pieces in place around him (the team should look into adding another impact receiver and likely will) and an offensive coordinator who will make life easy on him with a ground-and-pound game plan.
The discourse around Wilson is divisive after his tenure in Denver, but he seems poised to take advantage of his new opportunity, and the Steelers obviously felt and still feel as if he’s the quarterback who can help them reach their goals. This team is starving for a playoff win, and this season feels like its best chance to get one with Wilson under center. Given that they haven’t won one since 2016, it feels like the lowest expectation with the moves the Steelers made this offseason to win one, and Bettis’ comments sure sound like he thinks Wilson can be the guy to lead the Steelers deep into the postseason.
It’s going to be a fun quarterback room to watch, and it’s always nice to hear people who are around the organization as former players praise the moves that the front office made. We’ll see if Wilson can meet or exceed expectations this season, but I have a lot of faith that he’ll be better than he has been and is the right guy to lead the Steelers in 2024.
