Mark Schlereth made headlines after saying Pittsburgh Steelers QB Russell Wilson suffers from toxic positivity. That is a new term for most people, and frankly I’m guessing Schlereth was using it in his own sense. It’s a curious phrase, even if not entirely a mystical one, but he elaborated on his comments on his Stinkin’ Truth podcast.
“I honestly think that Russ has been sold a bill of goods by the people he surrounds himself with, that the teams that he’s on have limited him”, Schlereth said when asked to explain what he meant by Wilson holding himself back through toxic positivity. “I think you need to come to grips—all players need to come to grips—with what they’re good at and what they’re not good at. Probably more importantly what you’re not good at”.
Wilson certainly presents a positive front, and those closest to him insist that it’s genuine. But Schlereth suggests that he surrounds himself with people who tell him he can do anything. He extends this group to the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, whom he faults in this matter. Essentially, they set Wilson up to struggle because they failed to appropriately mitigate his weaknesses.
The one area that Schlereth harped on in particular is Wilson’s pocket presence, resulting in a high sack percentage. Wilson has taken 527 sacks over his 12-year career for an 8.5-percent sack rate. And it’s only gotten worse, as his sack rate during his two years in Denver rose to 9.7 percent.
Since Wilson entered the league, he has the 14th-highest sack percentage of all players with 500-plus pass attempts. Raise that to 1,000 pass attempts and he is sixth, behind only Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick, Tyrod Taylor, DeShaun Watson, and Daniel Jones. All of those quarterbacks have similar issues in the pocket, particularly holding onto the ball.
“Historically, you look at just the amount of sacks he takes. Probably on average he’s taking 45 sacks a year. Think about how that limits you as an offense. This is a big issue for Russ and the Steelers”, Schlereth said of Wilson.
He suggested that teams only have a 12-18-percent chance of scoring even a field goal when they take a sack. “Now we’ve taken it from 12 potential drives down to nine potential drives. Now if we’re only scoring on a third of those, instead of four, you’re down to two touchdowns and a field goal”.
Schlereth’s original “toxic positivity” remark followed comments suggesting that Russell Wilson can’t play the game he thinks he can play. He said that Wilson believes he can adopt a late-stage Drew Brees game but that Wilson is wrong.
And, well, he is, because few players took fewer sacks than Brees. He is arguably the great rhythm passer of the era, getting the ball out on time and with accuracy. Wilson is more liable to make plays off-script after avoiding pressure.
Schlereth said he has spoken to people in Seattle who suggest Wilson was responsible for 35-40 percent of his sacks. He added that the percentage is likely even higher for his time in Denver over the past two years. That isn’t going to magically fix itself in Pittsburgh, and they are going through offensive line adjustments.
Let’s face it, Russell Wilson isn’t any taller in Pittsburgh than he was in Denver and Seattle. But here’s the thing. Wilson only needs to play the game Arthur Smith designs for him. Schlereth did allow that if anybody can get the best out of Wilson, it’s Smith. But he’s not going to turn Wilson into Drew Brees, either.
