When the Pittsburgh Steelers made the bold move to sign veteran quarterback Russell Wilson to a one-year, $1.21 million deal in free agency, GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin were betting on the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback finding his form once again, stabilizing the quarterback situation in Pittsburgh.
From a leadership standpoint, Wilson has certainly done that. His ability to lead, communicate and organize has been praised throughout the offseason, through training camp and the preseason, which ultimately helped him win the Steelers’ starting quarterback job to open the 2024 season.
But while there is quite a bit of belief in Wilson within the organization, that doesn’t appear to be the case around the NFL.
According to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, rival teams question whether Wilson is “too far past his prime” to be the difference maker that the Steelers’ new-look offense under new coordinator Arthur Smith needs.
“Quarterback Russell Wilson won the starting job, which was the expectation entering training camp. He needed to prove that he was over the early-camp calf injury before head coach Mike Tomlin named Wilson the starter over Justin Fields,” Howe writes, according to The Athletic. “Still, there’s concern among rival teams that Wilson is too far past his prime to be a difference-maker for an offense that has finished in the bottom 10 in total yards in five consecutive seasons.”
It was expected that Wilson, who entered training camp in the pole position at the quarterback spot, would be the Week 1 starter against the Atlanta Falcons. That never really changed, despite the national media trying to drum up some QB competition stuff when Wilson was sidelined with a calf injury suffered in a conditioning test before the first day of training camp.
The starting QB spot was never really a competition, regardless of what was said by Tomlin. His actions at QB spoke louder than his words, and in the end, it was Wilson getting the nod.
He’s coming off a pretty solid season in Denver, simply based on numbers, throwing for 3,070 yards and 26 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. Wilson still throws a great deep ball, too, which will be huge in Smith’s offense that has some playmakers on the outside to take the top off defenses.
But there are still plenty of concerns, too. His struggles to get rid of the ball quickly, taking a ton of sacks in the process. His all-or-nothing mindset as a passer of either hitting downfield shots, or checking it down, was a hinderance in Denver, too.
Even at 35 years old, with the amount of football he’s seen, the shape he’s in and the ability to spin the football the way that he does, he doesn’t appear past his prime. He might not be the Russell Wilson of old, but there’s still a solid NFL quarterback in there.
And if there is? The Steelers will be in business when it comes to competing in 2024, and potentially beyond. That should concern rival teams.
