One of the biggest and most immediate offseason questions for the Pittsburgh Steelers to figure out is their quarterback situation for 2025. All signs have pointed to Russell Wilson pretty much from the moment he signed with the team last March but some late-season struggles raised questions about that approach.
Wilson spoke to the media today to wrap up the season and doubled down on wanting to be back with the team in 2025.
“That’s the plan. I love it here,” Wilson said via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Brian Batko on X. “I think we have a great football team.”
That is, of course, coming from Wilson’s side of things, and it takes two willing sides to make a deal happen. He isn’t going to be paid $1.21 million like he was this past season while the Denver Broncos picked up the rest of the tab. What kind of money he covets remains to be seen, but the last two deals he has signed with the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos have been substantial.
“I think they’ve known I’ve always wanted to be here and play here, but it’s always a process,” Wilson said via Batko on X. “We haven’t had that meeting yet.”
Wilson missed the first six weeks of the season with a calf injury that also sidelined him for basically all of training camp. His first six starts were sensational, with a 5-1 record and pacing for some of the best numbers of his career. He regressed back to the mean with a 1-5 record to finish the season, including Saturday’s Wild Card loss to the Ravens. Three of those games were without George Pickens, and the defense did not do the team any favors, but Wilson turned the ball over in critical spots and rarely provided the spark the Steelers desperately needed.
The Steelers will start holding exit meetings with players and formulating their 2025 plan. I’m not so sure they even know their 2025 plan yet with the playoff disaster just two days ago.
Wilson was one of the lone bright spots in the playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The first half wasn’t great, but he finished with 20 completions on 29 attempts for 270 yards, two touchdowns, zero turnovers, and a 121.3 passer rating. Almost all of those stats came in the second half, too.
Shortly after joining Steelers, the P-G’s Gerry Dulac said that there was mutual interest in the Steelers re-signing Wilson to a multi-year deal following the season. Wilson has said he would like to play for five to seven more years. Then reports indicated later in the season that the plan is to bring Wilson back. But how much did the five-game losing streak complicate things? That remains to be seen. Justin Fields remains an option as well, and he has already stated that he’d like to return to the Steelers.
How much money is Wilson going to want and what kind of concessions is he willing to make on his next contract? That could be the key to whether he comes back or not, but it wouldn’t be for a lack of desire on his end from the sound of things.
“I just love the guys. I love the locker room. I love Coach [Mike] Tomlin,” Wilson said in a team-provided transcript. “I think that, obviously this is a place that I think can win a lot and all that stuff, too. And I think you have a championship-caliber football team.”
