The Pittsburgh Steelers are no stranger to having a quarterback who is pushing the limits in terms of their age. Russell Wilson is set to enter the season at 35 years old and come out the other end at 36. Ben Roethlisberger, of course, played five seasons at that age or older. If you look at the number of sacks Roethlisberger took over the last several years of his career, they were quite low.
After taking anywhere from 30 to 50 sacks per season for much of his early career, the Steelers changed up the offensive system and provided a great offensive line to limit how much punishment Roethlisberger’s body took as he increased in age.
Will they be able to keep that number down for Wilson? Other than Justin Fields, no quarterback held onto the ball longer per play than Wilson did in 2023. His average time to throw was 2.99 seconds, and to nobody’s surprise that resulted in him being the fourth-most sacked quarterback last season with 45 sacks taken. In fact, Wilson is now the fifth-most sacked quarterback of all time. He has taken 527 in his career, which is just 43 away from being tied with Fran Tarkenton for the all-time most.
At this stage of his career, Wilson is unlikely to change the way he extends plays and puts himself at unnecessary risk. That is part of his game, and you have to take the bad with the good. Sometimes that will result in late-developing plays that provide a huge boost to the offense on possession downs or otherwise, but he will also be putting himself at risk.
In years where Wilson has played at least 15 games, he has taken at least 43 sacks in every season since 2017. Based on his history, that gives him a pretty good chance of at least tying the all-time record. A fair amount of his sacks taken are directly his fault, too. Attempting to extend plays, he has a bad habit of bailing out of clean pockets too early and putting himself in precarious positions.
Add that the offensive line for the Steelers is set to feature three starters who are either rookies or second-year players, and he should once again be taking a lot of sacks. Last season, the Steelers allowed 36 total sacks to their quarterbacks. In 2022, that number was 38.
Maybe that number will come in a little under the 43 necessary to tie the record because of the run-first offense being featured under OC Arthur Smith. The Steelers haven’t allowed 43 or more sacks since the 2010 season, but they also haven’t had a quarterback who holds onto the ball so long, or an offensive line that has this much youth in recent memory.
I am all for quarterbacks breaking records, but I think we can all agree that this is one we do not want to see in 2024.
