Pittsburgh Steelers WR Scotty Miller has a better understanding of high-level quarterback play than anyone else on the Steelers’ roster other than QB Russell Wilson. He spent his first four NFL seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That time included QB Tom Brady’s final three NFL seasons.
So Miller had an up-close look at the work Brady put in each and every week. He sees the same work ethic in his current quarterback.
“Their approach to everyday work is similar,” said Miller on Thursday’s episode of the Christian Kuntz Podcast. “I think they’ve both had so much success that you could see maybe they would take a day off or take it easy. But the reason they are so great, they’ll never do that. If you’ll see when we’re walking off the plane every time we land somewhere, you’ll see Russ the last one on the plane even though he’s first class and we’re in the back. But he’s got that play sheet out, everything’s highlighted, he’s got stuff drawn all over it. That just shows you how locked in he is.”
Wilson has shown just how locked in he is this season. Since he stepped in as the starter against the New York Jets in Week 7, the Steelers are 6-1. But it’s not just winning football. Wilson is playing at an incredibly high level. Tony Dungy thinks Wilson would be talked about as an MVP candidate if he had played the entire season.
That’s because the Steelers are scoring 28.4 points per game with Wilson as the quarterback. Wilson’s performance has brought the team’s points-per-game average up to 10th in the league at 24.8. He’s also generating explosive plays (and minimizing negative plays) better than anyone in the league.
And that comes back to preparation and practice. Miller has seen both Tom Brady and Russell Wilson on the practice field and on the field on Sundays. To him, Wilson approaches the game the same way that Brady did: the right way. No one would bat an eye at either quarterback taking a practice easy here or there. Wilson has 346 career regular-season touchdowns with another 25 in the playoffs.
But that’s not enough. Russell Wilson wants to win more Super Bowls, and that work begins in the meeting rooms and on the practice field.
