During the height of his career, Pittsburgh Steelers veteran quarterback Russell Wilson was considered among the best of the best. He put up impressive numbers, made some jaw-dropping plays and had himself on a Hall of Fame path, especially after winning a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and appearing in another.
Since then, Wilson has fallen off a bit.
So much so, in fact, that at age 35 entering his first season in the Steel City, he’s now being compared to the now-defunct Gateway computer.
Yes, you read that right.
Wilson, who signed with the Steelers on a one-year, $1.21 million deal in free agency this offseason after being released by the Denver Broncos two years into a massive contract extension that has the Broncos eating $85 million in dead cap space the next two years combined, is on the verge of going out of business. Sort of.
During a segment on Friday’s Good Morning Football, Kyle Brandt made the comparison between Wilson and Gateway, Inc., while making his case as to why the Steelers should roll with Justin Fields as their starting quarterback this season.
“He’s a computer that is just bound up with sicknesses and viruses. It doesn’t work like it used to. If it did, he wouldn’t be in Pittsburgh. If it did, he wouldn’t have been in Denver,” Brandt said of Wilson, according to video via the show’s Twitter page. “You know, your computer at your mom’s house and you go home, the old Gateway that’s got rollercoaster tycoon on it, like it doesn’t work anymore. It’s fine. We respect it. We had a lot of great memories on that. We had a lot of projects and school papers that we did on that computer.
“It’s not working anymore. It’s slow. It’s bogged down. The fact that we are talking about Russell Wilson going into the final preseason game to beat a Bears castoff [Fields] for the starting job tells you everything you need to know.”
Brandt is one of the best in show business and has a way with words. This was another example of that. The guy can draw comparisons to pretty much anything. It’s remarkable what he does. This was one of his best yet, even if it’s hard to fully get on board with the comparison.
Yes, Wilson is coming off a short stint in Denver where he lasted just two seasons. And yes, was unceremoniously released by the Broncos after head coach Sean Payton had open hostility toward him and was never truly on board with him being the QB in Denver.
He was also traded by the Seahawks just a few seasons ago to Denver, so as Brandt points out, if Wilson worked like he used to and was still the same guy, he wouldn’t have been jettisoned by two different teams.
It’s fine to acknowledge that Wilson isn’t what he once was. At 35 years old, how could he be? He does have to adjust though, and he showed signs of doing that in Denver last season, though he still held onto the football too long and took too many sacks.
Brandt’s comparison of Wilson to a Gateway computer left former NFL defensive end Akbar Gbajabiamila incredulous, with Gbajabiamila asking if Brandt was saying Wilson was out of business like the old computer company went in 2007.
“If he doesn’t win this job, he’s a backup for the season. He’s probably not a Steeler next year, and then he’s Carson Wentz. He’s bouncing around on this team, this team, this team. I don’t relish this. This is just the facts, guys. Gateway computer,” Brandt said. “They had a cow box cow, right? And it was like, it was before…it was a Gateway and your mom had it and it was great. That little workstation with the wood, like it was fantastic.
“I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
For the sake of the Steelers in 2024 and potentially beyond, hopefully Brandt is wrong. But based on initial returns with the calf injury in a conditioning test before training camp and then in limited preseason action, Wilson doesn’t look all that promising right now.
Time will tell if the old computer can reboot and get up to speed, humming right along and helping turn the Steelers into a contender in 2024. But if not, the Steelers might need to upgrade to the fancy, lightly used MacBook in Justin Fields.
