The Pittsburgh Steelers staked their immediate future on Russell Wilson in 2024. While it didn’t cost them much—perhaps Kenny Pickett—they didn’t get what they needed. The team had many issues by the end of the season, but Wilson’s play down the stretch was certainly one of them.
Simply looking at the raw statistics won’t tell you the full story. The occasional well-timed moon ball could cover up for a lot of mediocre play. Everyone remembers Russell Wilson’s awful turnovers at inopportune moments, but he declined late in the season. And according to Brooke Pryor, it was more apparent on the practice field, especially entering the playoffs.
“Toward the end of the season, the practices at Acrisure Stadium before the playoff game, I just remember watching Russ and thinking, ‘This is not good’”, she said on the Shek Show podcast. “He did not look good. He was making mistakes, he was throwing picks. I felt like the defense was gonna put up a bigger fight based on what I was seeing in practice.
“I felt like Russ kind of went over a cliff at some point in the season in that five-game losing streak. And no matter how much positivity he’s preaching, the actions didn’t back up the words. It just snowballed”.
Many Steelers fans rolled their eyes at charges of Russell Wilson’s toxic positivity when the Steelers first signed him. By the end of the season, though, many of the same fans were rolling their eyes for a different reason. Many point to a clip on Hard Knocks in which Wilson is trying to pep an ill Cameron Heyward after a fourth consecutive loss, saying they’ll win the next four. Narrator: they did not win the next four.
Wilson is a person who thrives on positivity, but it can be a burden on others when things go south. It can come across as insincere, though I don’t think it is. He lives through self-actualization, and helping to realize his intended reality is to believe in it.
Looking back a year ago, it is the root of the criticism many had of Wilson during his time with the Broncos. Basically, he convinced himself that he could still do things he could no longer do. No amount of self-actualization exercises will make you run faster when Trey Hendrickson is chasing you.
Opponents held Russell Wilson to under 150 passing yards in two of the Steelers’ last four regular-season games. He threw four touchdowns in that span, but rarely in a competitive setting. Even in the postseason loss, he threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He posted a 121.3 passer rating in that game, but that won’t tell you he was down 21-0 before doing anything.
