I’ve Done my Due Diligence; Russell Wilson to the Steelers is a Good Thing
I’ve come down from the emotions of last night, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that Russell Wilson is going to be our starter in 2024.
On Sunday night, Adam Schefter broke the news that Russell Wilson plans to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers on a veteran minimum deal worth about $1.2 million. Initially, this move rubbed me the wrong way. I guess my desire for Kenny Pickett to pan out ran deeper than I lead on. Ultimately, after sleeping on it and hearing what all the analysts had to say about it this morning, I’ve changed course, and I’m excited to see what happens this season.
It’s clear to me that Steeler fans are going to react emotionally to this news, much like I did, so I did a deep dive on r/DenverBroncos and r/Seahawks on reddit to see for myself where they stand with Russell Wilson.
For Denver Broncos fans, this wound is still very fresh, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’s getting thrashed pretty badly on their subreddit. However, as is the case with all fanbases, once you weed out the over-emotional homers (much like myself), you’ll find that there are reasonable folks out there that are able to articulate what actually happened in Denver in a truthful, accurate way. The consensus amongst the reasonable bunch of Broncos fans seems to be that both parties (Russell Wilson and the Broncos’ front office) are pretty equally culpable for the failure of the last two years.
For starters, the Broncos overpaid for a guy that hadn’t played a single snap of football for them at that point. Then, they went and paired him with Nathaniel Hackett, whose demeanor and style just doesn’t pair well with a guy like Russell Wilson. To the surprise of no one, that was the worst year of Russell Wilson’s career. Hackett has also been widely criticized for being a subpar coach and offensive coordinator, and rightfully so. His best years as a coordinator came during his time in Green Bay, because Aaron Rodgers was essentially given free rein to call and change plays as he saw fit. Outside of that, Hackett has been a disappointment everywhere else he’s been in the NFL. Finally, Sean Payton took over, and it became clear fairly quickly that Wilson and Payton weren’t going to mesh, despite Wilson’s good year statistically. A parting of the ways was inevitable and necessary at that point.
Seahawks fans have now had a couple of years to get over the sting of losing their Super Bowl winning quarterback, so their subreddit page was filled with more honest, less emotionally-charged takes on the situation. Many of their fans believe that Russell Wilson has become complacent, and that football has taken a backseat in his life now that he’s married and has made a family for himself, which is understandable. Some seem to think that because of this, and the fact that he doesn’t have the mobility he once had, that his best years are behind him, which may be true. But, even with his best years behind him, he’s still an upgrade over what the Steelers had to work with in 2023.
As for the media, there seems to be resounding support for the Pittsburgh Steelers making this move. From all I could gather from the shows I follow (pretty much daily), Shannon Sharpe was probably the only person critical of the move on First Take this morning. Sharpe’s whole argument was: Russell Wilson is an upgrade for the Steelers, but he’s on the market for a reason, and that’s because, for whatever reason, his previous two teams didn’t want him. At $1.2 million, I don’t care what those reasons are. He’s probably the best bargain in the NFL right now.
Russell Wilson and the Steelers received high praise from the Pat McAfee show this morning, as well. In fact, a big time Steelers fan, and ½ of the Hammer DAHN Cowboys Tone Digs said exactly what a lot of fans were thinking this morning: “For $1 million…you can’t complain about this at all.” Former Green Bay Packer, AJ Hawk, cosigned that sentiment saying: “It was too good to say no.”
At the end of the day, those boys are exactly right. So right, in fact, that I’d like to retract an opinion that I shared last night, when I said I would’ve preferred trading for Justin Fields. If you give up significant draft compensation for Justin Fields, you’re probably going to have to pick up his Fifth-year option, which puts you on the hook for somewhere near $28 million. That’s 28 million dollars for an unproven young guy, albeit with a high ceiling. That’s not a smart investment to make, when you can get stability and a low floor for $1.2 million. Those were my emotions talking, and that, folks, is why I don’t make decisions for the Steelers franchise.
I still don’t think we’re necessarily in the Super Bowl conversation quite yet, although I think we are a lot closer than we were 24 hours ago. As for Kenny Pickett, if he keeps working and takes this opportunity to learn from a proven guy, maybe we will get a redemption tour in the next few years. Until then, I’m gonna support the cornball and self-proclaimed Mr. Unlimited, and hope to god that us kicking the QB can further down the road doesn’t bite us in the ass later on. Let’s go get some playoff wins.
Here. We. Go.
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