At this point, no one knows if Brandon Aiyuk is going to get traded, so for now, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to have to roll with the wide receivers they’ve got. And maybe that isn’t as bad as it might seem on paper. The Steelers receiving corps might not have a ton of star power, but it seems Russell Wilson is more than happy with it.
“You saw today there were a lot of plays down the field, lot of guys making plays big time plays in the intermediate and short game,” Wilson said in a video on Twitter from Aaron Becker of Yardbarker. “There’s so much that our receivers can do. We’re really excited about who they are. We’ve got playmakers over all the field.”
Despite suffering a calf injury to start camp, Wilson has gotten back to practice and has been connecting with a lot of different receivers. Even though he hasn’t practiced as much as Justin Fields, he’s still gotten a good feel for where their talent level is at. If he feels comfortable with them, that says enough.
Many of the Steelers receivers fit Wilson’s skill set. The nine-time Pro Bowler is a more than proficient deep-ball passer, and the Steelers are not lacking on deep threats. Calvin Austin III, Quez Watkins, and Scotty Miller are all players whose games are predicated on speed. George Pickens is also excellent at getting vertical down the field.
While Wilson hasn’t been the same quarterback that he used to be, his ability to launch the ball down the field has not waned. The Steelers offense will need to be able to do more than that to be successful, but it will be a good skill to utilize. Wilson also felt good about the receivers’ work in the short and intermediate area of the field today, so clearly that’s not been a problem yet.
If Wilson plays in the upcoming preseason game, we’ll see how strong the connection is between him and the receivers. It will be a good litmus test of how good or bad the Steelers receivers are. They’ll still have time to pick through players cut by other teams, or players who are still on the trade block, so if they need to make improvements, they could. If the Steelers roll with this group though, Wilson seems to think they’ll be just fine.
