It was starting to feel like Russell Wilson earned himself a blank check with the Pittsburgh Steelers beyond the 2024 season, but the three-game losing streak has forced a perspective shift on the team. Wilson hasn’t been immune to that.
He was previously on pace for one of the best seasons of his potential Hall of Fame career, but the last three weeks have seen him crash back down to earth. He now has a 64.6 completion percentage with a pace of 3,967 yards, 25.5 TDs, and 8.5 INTs across a 17-game season. It would be a decent season, but it’s no longer trending to be anywhere near his best like it previously was. Even his 6.64 ANY/A has regressed back to the mean.
Despite his late-season regression late, ESPN insider Adam Schefter still sees Wilson as the Steelers’ QB in 2025 and possibly beyond.
“It still looks like Russell Wilson is the path forward right now with him being on an expiring contract,” Schefter said via ESPN’s Get Up this morning. “It’s not like you can go shopping for ‘Quarterbacks R Us’ here. It just doesn’t happen right now. The Steelers aren’t gonna have a pick high enough to get one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft. The top quarterbacks in free agency are Sam Darnold and Russell Wilson, who’s already acclimated to Pittsburgh and knows the offense well. Where are you gonna go get a quarterback?”
Schefter’s reasoning is more about a lack of other options to improve than Wilson proving he’s unquestionably the guy. It’s hard to argue with that, though it was seeming like the latter category less than a month ago. If there’s a silver lining, Wilson’s price tag may have gone down depending on what ends up happening in the playoffs.
The only issue is any price tag is much higher than the current price tag of $1.21 million because the Denver Broncos picked up the rest of the tab from previous guarantees. It’s not going to be easy to improve the talent around him when the Steelers’ spending on the quarterback position skyrockets and that is going to be the case no matter what discount Wilson may or may not agree to.
“They’re gonna find a way to get the firepower that [Andrew] Hawk[ins] and Bart [Scott] were talking about them missing,” Schefter said. “They’ve been trying to add firepower to that offense all year long. They need to surround the quarterback with more weapons more than they need to be able to upgrade the quarterback because that is not something that is easily done in the NFL.”
Additional weapons on offense would be nice, but the offensive line continues to be a big question mark after heavy investments. Will Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, Broderick Jones, and Troy Fautanu be enough to build around for the future? It’s hard to give a definitive answer there on any player other than Frazier at the moment. That group absolutely needs to start living up to the investment lest it becomes another failed OL overhaul.
There is also Justin Fields to consider. If the Steelers aren’t going to have the firepower to compete now, is it better to go with the cheaper and younger QB option? These are the things the Steelers will need to consider, though most of the reporting has indicated they plan on moving forward with Wilson.
