By Larry Holder, Nick Kosmider and Mark Kaboli
Russell Wilson will make his third NFL stop, this time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he announced on social media on Sunday. The Super Bowl-winning quarterback has agreed to a one-year deal with the franchise, according to a league source.
Year 13. Thankful. @Steelers pic.twitter.com/0U4Q2sRtXs
— Russell Wilson (@DangeRuss Wilson) March 11, 2024
Wilson, 35, is coming off a two-year deal with the Denver Broncos that began in a blockbuster trade from the Seattle Seahawks and was released in early March. In the final two games of the 2023 season, Denver finished with an 8-9 record, opening the door for release.
Last season, Wilson threw for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions and earned a 98.0 passer rating through 15 games in Sean Payton’s offense. The quarterback struggled with an 84.4 passer rating for 3,524 yards, 16 TDs and 11 interceptions in 2022 as coach Nathaniel Hackett went without a season with Wilson. Denver fired Hackett before the end of the year.
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The Broncos acquired the nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback in a massive trade with the Seattle Seahawks in March 2022, during which the Broncos gave up five draft picks, including two first-rounders, and three players in Wilson and a fourth-round pick. . Denver won just 11 of the 30 games Wilson started.
Wilson led the Seahawks to one of the best titles in the NFL with two trips to the playoffs with one Super Bowl win as well as nine Pro Bowl nods. He threw for 37,059 yards with 292 TDs and 87 interceptions resulting in a 101.8 passer rating in 10 seasons with the Seahawks.
Where Wilson is stored
What should the Steelers expect from Wilson? Given how the last three seasons have panned out, it might not be a great result.
Here’s how Wilson stacked up last season in points added by dropback (per TruMedia), passer rating and overall QB EPA last season.
| Player | EPA/DB | Psr Art | Total EPA |
|---|---|---|---|
|
0.26 (1) |
113.0 (1) |
132.8(1) |
|
|
0.18 (2) |
105.9 (2) |
117.1(2) |
|
|
0.15 (3) |
101.1 (5) |
60.7 (5) |
|
|
0.13 (4) |
92.2 (16) |
103.9 (3) |
|
|
0.12 (5) |
96.1 (11) |
75.5 (4) |
|
|
0.11 (6) |
100.8 (6) |
59.9 (7) |
|
|
0.11 (7) |
97.9 (9) |
59.9 (6) |
|
|
0.11 (8) |
92.5 (15) |
59.3 (8) |
|
|
0.09 (9) |
98.4 (7) |
25.6 (14) |
|
|
0.07 (10) |
92.6 (14) |
35.2 (11) |
|
|
0.07 (11) |
93.2 (13) |
29.4 (13) |
|
|
0.07 (12) |
89.1 (20) |
52.4 (9) |
|
|
0.07 (13) |
102.7 (4) |
35.6 (10) |
|
|
0.06 (14) |
94.6 (12) |
29.9 (12) |
|
|
0.06 (15) |
103.8 (3) |
20.3 (16) |
|
|
0.06 (16) |
92.1 (17) |
22:7 (15) |
|
|
0.04 (17) |
97.7 (10) |
14:6 (17) |
|
|
-0.01 (18) |
84.6 (23) |
-8.2 (19) |
|
|
-0.01 (19) |
89.4 (19) |
-5.8 (18) |
|
|
-0.03 (20) |
91.0 (18) |
-13.5 (20) |
|
|
-0.03 (21) |
84.2 (24) |
-21.9 (24) |
|
|
-0.03 (22) |
88.5 (21) |
-31.1 (25) |
|
|
-0.04 (23) |
83.9 (25) |
-16.8 (22) |
|
|
-0.05 (24) |
86.3 (22) |
-21.5 (23) |
|
|
-0.05 (25) |
98.0 (8) |
-16.7 (21) |
|
|
-0.07 (26) |
83.4 (26) |
-43.7 (26) |
|
|
-0.08 (27) |
79.5 (28) |
-50.7 (27) |
|
|
-0.12 (28) |
78.9 (29) |
-87.1 (30) |
|
|
-0.15 (29) |
81.4 (27) |
-54.1 (28) |
|
|
-0.18 (30) |
77.0 (31) |
-75.8 (29) |
|
|
-0.21 (31) |
73.7 (32) |
-133.5 (32) |
|
|
-0.23 (32) |
77.2 (30) |
-117.1 (31) |
There is a noticeable difference in the passing rating for the Wilson and the EPA ratings. That’s because Wilson was able to fill the stat sheet in non-critical moments for the Broncos last season. The trend is in his time with the Seahawks. He posted the worst single-game EPA rate of his career last season in Denver’s Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
So can Wilson pull himself together? He is a gamble the Steelers are taking by signing him. – Larry Holder, the NFL’s top writer
What the Steelers get in Wilson
The Steelers won’t get the MVP-candidate version of Wilson as soon as the first half of 2020. He proved to be a much better player last season than he was in 2022, the worst season of his career, his first season in Denver. At age 35, entering his 13th season as a quarterback, he’s somewhere in between.
Wilson isn’t as accurate a deep ball receiver as he was earlier in his career, but he remains a significant weapon. His throw to Courtland Sutton in the Week 14 win over the Los Angeles Chargers showed he can still push the ball downfield.
How can this continue 🤯@SuttonCourtland | 📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/xlRoH9GGBk
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 10, 2023
Wilson can still make special things happen — see: the two-spin move and the throw to Sutton in Buffalo — but it’s not as easy as it used to be in that department.
He had 100 sacks in his two seasons in Denver, more than any quarterback in the league. His sack rate of 9.7 percent ranked 31st among 38 quarterbacks.
Still, Wilson is a seasoned quarterback in big moments, having led four fourth-quarter comebacks in big moments to help lead the team to a 7-6 mark 13 games into the season after a 1-5 start. He will need to be backed up by a strong running game in Pittsburgh so he can thrive in play-action settings. – Nick Kosmider, Broncos staff writer
Wilson seemed like a long shot to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. General manager Omar Khan had “full confidence” in Kenny Pickett and the Steelers wanted to re-sign Mason Rudolph. Like the old cliché, a lot can happen in a week. Wilson now realizes that he is number 1, his actions have shown that they have little faith in Pickett and Rudolph will play for another team in 2024.
The question is, what happened in this short time? The Steelers have to think Wilson will get them closer to a championship or they wouldn’t have drafted him as a contender, which they almost certainly did. The nine-time Pro Bowler, or better yet, the former Super Bowl champion will not sign with the Steelers for options and a cheap price tag to compete against a quarterback with 13 touchdowns in 24 career starts. Pickett’s career as a Steeler all but ended with the signing of Wilson. – Mark Kaboli, Steelers head coach
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(Photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)