The Pittsburgh Steelers officially named Russell Wilson their starting quarterback yesterday. The Steelers play his former team, the Denver Broncos, in Week 2—how much is he thinking about that? While he carries himself with a chip on his shoulder, he says he is looking forward, not backward.
Asked if he feels he has anything to prove, speaking to reporters yesterday, Wilson said, “I feel like that every day. You try to prove yourself”, via the team’s website. When it came to addressing his past, though, he left the past right there.
“Those 10 years in Seattle were really special. It was always home for me, and just a place I loved”, Wilson said. “Obviously, Denver, the first year didn’t go the way that I expected.…I think last year, I felt like me again”.
The Broncos acquired Russell Wilson in a blockbuster trade in 2022. They proceeded to sign him to a massive, binding contract, which they quickly lived to regret. They are still paying him many millions to not play for them this year, Wilson signing for the minimum in Pittsburgh.
Despite the way things ended, the Broncos are just another opponent for Wilson. They benched him late last season because he refused to waive his injury guarantees, and then they released him. They asked him to waive those guarantees because they had already decided by then to release him. And now he has an opportunity to make his case that they made a mistake in doing so. But instead, he is thinking about the Steelers and his teammates and winning a Super Bowl.
“For me, I’m just focused on that. I’m not focused on anything old or anything ahead, to be honest with you”, Wilson said. “I’m just excited to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, like I said. We have a great organization that the Rooneys put together and obviously Coach [Mike] Tomlin, as I mentioned. So, what an honor it is”.
It’s hardly likely that Russell Wilson has no feelings about playing the Broncos and Sean Payton, of course. He is human, after all, but he has been in this business long enough. He knows what he should say, and more importantly, he knows what he shouldn’t say. Even his teammates want to beat the Broncos for him.
After flaming out with the Broncos, Wilson understands he has one last shot at solidifying his legacy. He can lock up a bust in Canton if he can author a satisfying final chapter with the Steelers. And if that means beating Payton’s Broncos along the way, then so be it. It might help the Steelers win a Super Bowl, after all, and that’s what makes it good—nothing else, right?
