Immediate thoughts on the Steelers signing Russell Wilson

My initial thoughts on the Steelers new QB

Well, it’s finally done.

After months of speculation and wondering what quarterback would end up in Pittsburgh, the Steelers are signing Russell Wilson to a one-year deal worth $1.2 million.

My initial thoughts on the deal are somewhat layered, so I’ll start with this: they are in a better spot than they were 24 hours ago.

Wilson is a better quarterback than Kenny Pickett. His 26 touchdowns in 2023 are more than all Steelers quarterbacks combined since Ben Roethlisberger retired (25). He also took an evident step forward in his second year in Denver. Obviously, that experiment didn’t go as planned, which is why he’s a Steeler in the first place, but all of his numbers shot up and he played much better under Sean Payton than he did Nathaniel Hackett.

However, this move doesn’t take them over the hump. Wilson is the difference between winning 10 games instead of nine. Pittsburgh went from having the worst quarterback in the conference to maybe the 11th best(?) If they want to get anywhere of importance, they still have to go through some combination of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, C.J. Stroud, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, the Dolphins’ offense, and a Colts team that will likely be right back in the picture with an exciting young quarterback. The AFC is still very stacked and full of talent under center. You need an upper-tier quarterback to get far in the conference. And while Wilson improved in 2023, don’t let his touchdown-to-interception ratio fool you into thinking he was elite. He was 21st in EPA per play and yards per attempt. He didn’t utilize the middle of the field, and it was a lot of home runs and checkdowns style of football.

The best thing the Steelers could do, and should do, is attempt to build a juggernaut defensively. They have the money to do so and aren’t spending anything on the quarterback position. Make a splash signing. Trade for someone like L’Jarius Sneed. Go ham with every other position because if you aren’t going to spend money on a quarterback, you’d better build a close to perfect roster to support him.

Again, the Steelers are in a better spot than what they were last season, and I’ll be cautiously optimistic about how the fit will ultimately work, but this doesn’t get them over any hump. If they are a playoff team, they’ll be facing one of those star quarterbacks, and history shows they won’t be able to keep up. Could Wilson have Kurt Warner-esc renaissance in Pittsburgh? Sure. It seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened. That said, if they ever want to be one of the elite teams of the NFL again, they’re going to have to pay a quarterback.

But that’s a conversation for a different day. Free agency is just beginning, and we’re a ways away from games being played and what have you, so we can circle back to this around October-November and see where everything stands.