Russell Wilson’s first start with the Pittsburgh Steelers was everything he hoped for and everything you could’ve expected. Moonballs galore. A strong grasp of the offense. A pre-game interview coded by Chat GPT. And in the end, he did what he’s done throughout most of his career. Win.
Former NFL QB J.T. O’Sullivan broke down Wilson’s performance on his popular ‘QB School’ channel and came away with a positive impression. It was a slow start but strong finish that highlighted the best parts of his game.
“We’re all going to find out together,” O’Sullivan said in concluding remarks of Wilson’s game and what his future holds. “But you gotta love the aggressiveness. You gotta love that Russell Wilson brought his stamp to the game. And it was certainly more than good enough.”
The “stamp” was throwing downfield and outside the numbers, a hallmark of his game. Not every throw was perfect but allowed the likes of WR George Pickens, arguably the best contested-catch player in football, to come down with grabs for chunk-yardage.
Overall, Wilson ended the day throwing for 264 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. A 2-of-8 start was quickly forgotten and he completed 8-0f-12 second half passes as Pittsburgh scored 31 unanswered to come back and beat the New York Jets.
O’Sullivan’s assessment was largely positive but he pointed out the issues in Wilson’s game, old habits that haven’t changed just because he’s on a new team.
“I think early on, you saw some of the limitations as far as bailing out of the pocket, not necessarily being able to operate downfield in the middle of the field passing game from within the pocket. He’s just naturally going to find those windows and kind of leak around the pocket. It’s just the way he plays the position.”
Wilson has a habit of rolling out, especially to his right, on clean pockets. It’s why he’s been sacked at a high clip throughout his career and why his snap-to-throw times are high, even in this game. But he settled in after shaking off the rust and played cleaner the rest of the way.
Check out his full breakdown below.
