It didn’t take long for Russell Wilson to know he was going to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Conversations with Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and star players sold him on Pittsburgh as his next stop, a choice that’s proven to be the correct one. Sitting down with ESPN’s Hannah Storm in an interview recorded last week, Wilson walked through how the Steelers pitched themselves to him. And why he was buying what they were selling.
“There’s two moments, really,” Wilson told Storm. “And both kind of simultaneously, When I got released, I was like, ‘Okay, here we go. It’s gonna be interesting. And several teams started calling and everything else. And then all of a sudden, my first call was with Mike Tomlin and Omar. I got to talk to those guys early. It was early in the morning, about 7:30 in the morning my time on the West Coast. I got to talk to those guys for a while. About an hour and a half.”
Wilson’s release was no surprise and one the Denver Broncos even announced days before formally doing so, waiting until the start of the new league year to officially cut him. It sounds like Pittsburgh was anxious to jump on the phone and be his first call, a full-court press of head coach and general manager pitching him. Wilson would eventually fly into Pittsburgh for a day-long meeting that ended with an agreement to sign, though the initial conversation told Wilson all he needed to know.
“Coach Tomlin and I, we have the same vision of ball,” he said. “And the love for the game and the passion behind it, and the obsession with it.”
Pittsburgh’s style and scheme fit Wilson far better than working with Sean Payton in Denver. With the Steelers, Wilson is under center more often, leaning on play-action and throwing vertically for chunk plays is a core part of the game plan. Under Payton, Russell Wilson was supposed to be Drew Brees, playing with pinpoint precision and death by a thousand paper cuts. In Pittsburgh, he’s playing like early-career Ben Roethlisberger, minus the frequent “backyard” plays. Through three contests, he’s tossed six touchdown passes to just one interception and led Pittsburgh to at least 26 points in every game.
After hanging up with Tomlin and Khan, Steelers star players got into the act, starting with a “great” two-hour FaceTime call with defensive lineman Cam Heyward.
That was followed by more phone calls from T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick, letting Wilson know Pittsburgh had the defense to support him and make a playoff run. They just needed a quarterback.
“I got to talk to T.J. T.J. and I, obviously Wisconsin guys and all that, we had some good conversations about that. He’s a guy who’s been great, a guy who’s one of the best to ever do it, and then I got to talk to Minkah. Minkah, he doesn’t talk long. But he’s like, ‘Hey, you like to compete?’ And that’s all the things I love is practice and ball and getting after it.”
Wilson had other suitors. And to a degree, he entertained them, first meeting with the New York Giants in-person before taking a flight – commercial, no less – to Pittsburgh. The Las Vegas Raiders were also rumored to be in the mix. But Pittsburgh had his heart. Everything else was just being thorough.
“I looked at [wife Ciara] and I was like, ‘I know where we’re going.’ This felt great. And it’s been awesome since,” Wilson said.
The decision was game-changing for Pittsburgh. The Giants and Raiders are playing in doomed seasons without a quarterback of the present or future. Like Wilson last season, Daniel Jones might soon get benched due to his play and injury guarantees. Vegas is playing roulette with its quarterbacks. The Steelers have found theirs.
Pieces of this story are already out there, including Heyward’s FaceTime call. But to my knowledge, this is the first time Wilson has mentioned receiving a bright-and-early phone call from Tomlin and Khan, who were eager as anyone to get him on the phone. Perhaps that’s why Tomlin turned to Wilson as the starter when few agreed with the move. Russell Wilson was his first choice, and together the Steelers have turned into an AFC contender.
Check out the entire interview, one well worth the watch, below.
