Just when it seemed like the Pittsburgh Steelers would have all of the leverage in potential contract talks with Russell Wilson this offseason, the situation was thrown a curveball by the Las Vegas Raiders. They signed Pete Carroll as their next head coach, and it could make all the sense in the world for him to reunite with his former quarterback as a bridge to whatever is next.
NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo isn’t certain whether the Raiders (or Wilson) will be interested, but he does think it will have an impact on his situation with the Steelers regardless.
“We’ll talk about Russell Wilson potentially joining him. Didn’t end on the best note between these two guys, so I don’t know if they would truly revisit it,” Garafolo said via NFL Netowork’s The Insiders. “At the very least, I think Russ would use it as leverage in his negotiations with the Steelers, which he says are underway. And I know that there’s a thought for the Steelers and Mike Tomlin to retain Russell Wilson in some capacity.”
Wilson was on the Pat McAfee Show just a couple days ago, and it was almost the perfect precursor to the Carroll news in Las Vegas. For one, he confirmed that contract talks with the Steelers have begun, starting with the exit meeting process. But he also had great things to say about his former coach.
Carroll and Wilson may have ended on a sour note, but they were one of the most successful QB-head coach tandems of all time. They had 104 regular season wins together, a regular season win percentage of .662, and one Super Bowl win with another appearance (that was very nearly another win).
The Steelers have the inside track to retain Wilson because the legal tampering period doesn’t open until early March. But that doesn’t mean Wilson and his agent can’t use the possibility of Carroll and the Raiders as leverage. Before this news, he had very little leverage if the Steelers offered him a contract prior to the start of free agency. He would’ve had to either accept it or look to free agency and hope that another team would be willing to make him their starter.
Now it seems possible that he could go and start with the Raiders. That could change if they land one of the top quarterbacks and make him a Week 1 starter with the No. 6 overall pick in the first round, but that isn’t a guarantee with only a couple potential day-one starters in this class.
Wilson’s leverage isn’t bulletproof, but it does help. Before, the Steelers had all the negotiating power with the presence of Justin Fields, and the possibility that no other team would want to start Wilson.
Of course, this all assumes that the Steelers even have interest in bringing Wilson back. They may be looking to move forward with a better long-term plan. Fields is a decade younger, and it’s about time they start looking in the draft as well.
I am sure there will be plenty more to come on this developing story.
