The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t had a positive contribution from their quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired, and even then, the last few years of his career were shaky at times. Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph all showed flashes of talent, but all three ultimately ended up hurting the Steelers more than they helped. Now, the fate of the franchise this year rests on Russell Wilson’s shoulders. Wilson won a Super Bowl before but has not looked like himself recently, which is why the Steelers were able to sign him for almost nothing. Still, he’s mostly looked at as an upgrade to what the Steelers had before, but one analyst believes he still doesn’t make the Steelers good enough to compete for a Super Bowl.
Dave Helman is an NFL analyst for Fox, and on a recent episode of the network’s show SPEAK, the panel discussed if signing Wilson put the Steelers over the hump. They wondered if Wilson would help the team finally win a playoff game after going through a drought since 2016, and Helman firmly stated that he believes there’s no way that could be true.
”Did everybody miss the last two years? No, I don’t think so. Was Russ brought here to get them over the hump, or was Russ brought here because the Pittsburgh Steelers are in crisis mode at quarterback? I don’t understand why the expectations should be so different for the Pittsburgh Steelers because they brought in a quarterback who has now had one middling season and one outright bad season in Denver.”
To refute Helman’s point, the reason for the optimism is because of how much of a negative quarterback has been for the Steelers. For most games, the Steelers’ defense has had to force at least one turnover, and sometimes more, in order for the team to even have a chance at winning. While Wilson hasn’t been the same player recently, the situation for him in Denver may have been part of the cause of that decline. In his first year with the Broncos, they were a mess from top to bottom. In his second year, he butted heads with head coach Sean Payton. With the Steelers, neither of those problems will exist.
It’s also not correct to say that the Steelers were in crisis mode at quarterback when they signed Wilson. At the time, he was supposed to provide actual competition for Kenny Pickett, who the team hoped would improve in a new offense. However, Pickett didn’t want to compete, so Wilson was essentially granted the starting job. If signing a former Super Bowl champion to the absolute lowest deal possible is what crisis mode looks like, then I’m not sure what Helman would call the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback situation for the past 30 years.
The Steelers have shown that they can hang with teams like the Baltimore Ravens or Buffalo Bills if they don’t have a liability at quarterback. Wilson seems to be fitting in well with the team so far, and even if he does play poorly, the Steelers have Justin Fields waiting behind him. At the very worst, Fields can learn how to correct some of his issues and learn some tricks from Wilson. The Steelers’ expectations are always to win a Super Bowl, and with Wilson, they are closer to that goal.
