Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been looking for stability at the quarterback position. Ahead of the 2024 season, they brought in Russell Wilson, hoping he could be their solution. A calf injury forced Wilson to miss the first six games of the season. He quickly settled in once healthy, winning six of his first seven games as a starter. Yet, the Steelers still lost their way towards the end of the year, losing their last five games for the first time this century.
Former running back turned analyst LeSean McCoy doesn’t think Wilson failed the Steelers, though. In fact, he thinks it was the other way around. On The FS1’s The Facility on Friday, former NFL running back LeSean McCoy thought Wilson gave more to the Steelers than vice versa.
“I’ve watched Russ [Russell Wilson] help this team out,” McCoy said. “I watched Russell Wilson help the Steelers out more than a coach helping Russ out. You thought, going to a Steelers team, they had a great defense, and great culture. That’s all Russ needs to be with to be a winner. Well he didn’t get that. The defense was not good for Russ. And Russ was the only one that was actually putting some points up and balling.”
McCoy may be right in his argument that all Wilson needs is good defense and coaching to win games. That’s the formula the Steelers followed early in his tenure as the starter. Pittsburgh won six of the first seven games with Wilson at the helm. While he lit up the scoreboard in some of those wins, he was helped by a defense which was playing cohesive football.
Yet, that defense dwindled towards the end of the year. Once that happened, it became clear that it’s much more difficult for the 36-year old quarterback to win games without that help on the other side of the ball. Statistically, Wilson didn’t fall off a cliff, although some might disagree. The defense was just giving up more points, and he couldn’t overcome that.
On the free agent market this year though, Russ remains a top option for Pittsburgh. Aside from Aaron Rodgers, one of the only other free agents who could land a starting role this offseason is Sam Darnold. McCoy had some thoughts on Darnold as well, and claimed that he would choose Wilson over him.
“I look at Sam Darnold. It’s like everything had to work well for him,” McCoy said. “He had a great coach. He had to get a really great wide receiver core, had to get a really great defense. And that still wasn’t enough for him.”
While McCoy may have been overtly positive in his analysis of Wilson, he makes a good point about Darnold here. Darnold did win 14 games last season, which is four more than the Steelers did. His 14-3 record sure looks better than Wilson’s 6-5 record in the regular season. Yet, Darnold had a defense that held firm up until the last two games of the year. He also had Kevin O’Connell to help, a finalist candidate to win Coach of the Year.
Essentially, Wilson may need less talent around him to succeed, which might make him a better option than Darnold. Still, as the Steelers’ five-game losing streak to end the year proves, he can’t do it on his own. Wilson may land the starting job in Pittsburgh again in 2025. If he does, the Steelers will need to put a stronger roster around him.
