Russell Wilson was written off after last season by the majority of the football world as a washed-up, has-been quarterback who was incapable of returning to his winning ways. Even when the Pittsburgh Steelers signed him for $1.21 million, there were many analysts unmoved by the acquisition, thinking it would do very little to elevate the team.
Boy were all of those people wrong. Russell Wilson isn’t just back, he’s all the way back. ESPN’s Mike Greenberg made a grand gesture this morning on behalf of the football world.
“I think the whole world owes Russell Wilson an apology. Russell Wilson is playing great,” Greenberg said via ESPN’s Get Up. “The football world left Russell Wilson for dead. Many of us, including me, said he should just retire, walk away, having had a great career and made all that money.
“Instead, right now, he’s leading a team that has a legitimate chance to make a deep playoff run. Russell Wilson deserves an apology from a lot of people, starting with me.”
It’s difficult to make excuses for a quarterback for multiple seasons in a row, but mitigating arguments can be made for each of Wilson’s last three years. In 2021, Wilson had the mallet-finger injury during his final season with the Seattle Seahawks. In 2022, his head coach was Nathaniel Hackett, who wasn’t even able to hold onto his play-calling duties as the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator this year.
Then, for as good of a coach as Sean Payton is, he didn’t mesh well with Wilson. Their relationship seemed more adversarial than collaborative. For what it’s worth, Wilson didn’t play that poorly in 2023 compared to how the media painted things.
Wilson seems to be proving this year that he was the unfortunate victim of circumstance under the weight of impossible expectations that came with the massive haul Denver gave up for him in a trade and subsequent contract that the nine-time Pro Bowler signed with the team.
It was less than two months ago that the overwhelming majority of analysts and media figures were critical of Mike Tomlin’s plan to go to Wilson over a 4-2 Justin Fields. Tomlin was proven right pretty quickly, and Wilson is now 6-1 with the Steelers having a shot to clinch the playoffs in Week 15.
The Steelers’ Week 14 win over the Cleveland Browns wasn’t Wilson’s most impressive work overall. He struggled pretty heavily throughout the first quarter. But he managed the game well, avoided big mistakes, and made a few huge plays to help secure a 27-14 victory without his top receiving target in George Pickens.
Even in a down game for Wilson, he managed a 101.1 passer rating and an adjusted net yards per pass attempt of 6.93. His 2024 ANY/A is 7.68, which is on pace to be the second best of his career.
No matter which way you look at it, Wilson is back. He is a potential Hall of Famer, and he is once again playing like it for the Steelers at 36 years old. He shouldn’t retire, he should be looking for another healthy contract that will have him playing into his 40s. When he signs that deal, it will be icing on the cake to everybody who doubted him over the last two or three years.
