Rewind to the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and the Pittsburgh Steelers repeated the same mistake in back-to-back years. They named a quarterback the offensive captain who went on to be benched later in the season.
Especially last year that became an issue as the offense was notably lacking leadership. So much so that it was a national headline for two or three weeks in December when the Steelers went on their three-game losing streak.
The Steelers named Russell Wilson their offensive captain this season, and Emmanuel Acho is worried that history might repeat itself.
“I got a huge issue with it,” Acho said via FS1’s new show The Facility on Tuesday morning. “Here’s my issue with it. Russell Wilson, I believe, is one of the greatest men I have ever met in my life. We came into the National Football League together. Russell Wilson is probably one of the best leaders of men in society. My issue is this. Don’t name a captain you might bench.”
Fair enough, but I think he probably answered his own question with the first part of his quote. The Steelers were lacking veteran leadership on offense. Just yesterday, Cameron Heyward—he is a longtime captain of the defense—told the media that a lot of leadership was needed on the offensive side of the ball.
This is Wilson’s 12th-straight season as a captain in the NFL. The only time he wasn’t was when he was a rookie with the Seattle Seahawks. His leadership is probably one of the best parts about bringing him to the Steelers in the first place.
Teammates have been very complimentary about his leadership skills all throughout the offseason. Even Justin Fields, who he was in the quarterback competition with, stated multiple times that Wilson was a great leader he was learning a lot from.
When Wilson was brought into the organization, there was a narrative out there that he was unrelatable and too big of a superstar to connect with younger players in the locker room. It has played out quite the opposite with guys like Calvin Austin III, Zach Frazier, George Pickens, and many others singing his praises.
He brought players together in the offseason at his house in San Diego for workouts, and Austin told the media that Wilson would frequently text the guys after practice to praise them for all the things they did well that day.
Even when he was out with a calf injury throughout most of training camp and the national media was really pushing for Fields to win the starting job, Wilson said all the right things. He never made it about himself or tried to put Fields down.
If not Wilson as the Steelers’ offensive captain, then who? Pat Freiermuth and Najee Harris would probably be the two best bets as veterans of the room. Harris held the captain role once before. It probably would have been more of a distraction and more of a story if Wilson was snubbed as a captain, to be honest.
And this entire conversation is assuming that Tomlin has any plans of benching Wilson for Fields. Unless things go horribly wrong, I don’t see that happening.
