At one point coming in at No. 7 on Nick Shook’s NFL.com QB index, Russell Wilson has been on a precipitous decline. Following the Steelers’ three-game losing streak and four weeks of poor play, Wilson has reached a new low on the season.
“For much of Wilson’s tenure with the Steelers, the good has outweighed the bad. The last two games have swung the needle in the opposite direction,” Shook wrote.
Debuting on the list at No. 18, Wilson hovered around that level and previously fell to the No. 20 spot earlier in the season. Not long after that Wilson catapulted himself into the top 10 following some impressive wins. From seven, falling to 10, slipping to 13, and now all the way down at 21, Wilson has been a player on the decline for over a month.
To put that into context, Wilson is just one spot ahead of Kenny Pickett, who was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in the offseason after the Steelers signed Wilson. Pickett got his first start with the Eagles last Sunday after Jalen Hurts exited midway through the game in the week prior.
Wilson was looking like a player who had recaptured his Hall of Fame form after a two-year failure with the Denver Broncos. Lately, he’s looked much more like the Broncos version of himself that had many thinking his career was essentially over.
You can come up with excuses for his play if you really look for them. George Pickens was out for three games, leaving Wilson with no WR1. The defense has also struggled over that span, which puts the offense in a bind as it looks to play catch up. But the bottom line is that Wilson hasn’t done enough to elevate the team recently.
“He’s had chances to propel the Steelers in key spots in his last two games and has either come up short or thrown away possessions, sowing new doubt in the Steelers’ potential as we near the postseason,” Shook wrote. “He’ll need to get it right quickly to salvage this season.”
One of the biggest issues lately has been Wilson’s untimely turnovers. He’s thrown two interceptions and lost two fumbles, including some with the Steelers in scoring position. Those critical mistakes will have to be eliminated for the Steelers to have any chance in the postseason. I don’t know how possible it is to make a deep playoff run when your quarterback is barely outside of the bottom 10 in the league at season’s end.
The last time Wilson played the Bengals, he propelled himself to No. 7. Maybe a get-right game against a poor defense is just what Wilson needs to turn things around before the postseason.
