Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields have been among the most-sacked quarterbacks in the league over the past few seasons, which has been a major crutch for both of them. In Pittsburgh, the hope is that they will be eliminated by whoever starts at quarterback, which will likely be Russell Wilson. Appearing on The Opening Drive on SiriusXM NFL Radio, former NFL quarterback and current analyst Ryan Leaf believes that the Steelers will be “solid” offensively with Wilson under center, provided he can limit sacks.
“The biggest thing for me with Russell Wilson and that he has to eliminate, and it will frustrate the heck out of Arthur Smith, is taking sacks. Russell doesn’t turn the football over. He’s incredibly efficient in the red zone, and he has a great completion percentage. If he can do all those things and limit the sacks, this team’s going to win. This team’s going to be solid offensively. They’re very good on defense when T.J. Watt is healthy, and that will present a real problem for every opponent they have,” Leaf said.
Eliminating sacks and staying on schedule will be important for Pittsburgh’s offense. Arthur Smith’s offense utilizes the ground game and play-action, and if the Steelers consistently find themselves in second-and-third and long situations, it’s going to be hard to win like that.
Even with the issues with sacks, Russell Wilson should still present an upgrade at quarterback for the Steelers, and the offense should look better with him under center. The question becomes how much better it can be, and that’s where limiting sacks will be important. For the Steelers to compete in the AFC, the offense likely will need to average over 20 points per game after averaging just 17.9 last season.
Getting essentially three touchdowns a game will be hard if Russell Wilson consistently takes sacks, and not all of it will be on him. But he has to get the ball out quicker, and the rebuilt offensive line (even though it might not look all that different come Week 1) needs to hold up for him. With Troy Fautanu potentially not starting Week 1, Dan Moore Jr. will need to step up, and Broderick Jones will need to erase some of the issues he had earlier in the preseason. However, Wilson must also get rid of the ball and make quicker decisions than in Denver.
It will be interesting to see where Russell Wilson can take this offense, but it will be a major step forward if he can reduce the number of times he gets sacked. He got brought down 45 times in just 15 games last season while taking 55 sacks in the same amount of games in 2022. Getting that number lower will be huge for Pittsburgh’s offense, and it could lead to the unit being solid, as Leaf believes, this season.
