Russell Wilson Agrees to 1-Year, $1.2M Deal With Steelers
Photo Credit: Steph Chambers, Getty Images
One of the most anticipated free agent quarterback signings off the offseason was announced on Sunday night, as Russell Wilson will be signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2024 season. Wilson’s contract is for one season, worth $1.2 million.
This deal is very team-friendly for Pittsburgh, as Wilson wasn’t looking for much money from his 2024 team because of the contract details from his historic extension he signed with the Denver Broncos in 2022 that he never played a snap under. Part of the clause of the contract was that Denver would pay Wilson $39 million minus whatever his 2024 suitor would pay him. Denver will pay him $37.8 million in 2024 to not play for them.
Wilson, the nine-time Pro Bowler and one-time Super Bowl champion, spent a lot of time over the past week planning out his future. He made a stop in New York to meet with the Giants, but after meeting with the Steelers for over six hours on Friday, he made the decision that Pittsburgh would be the best fit for him in 2024.
Wilson’s time in Denver was nothing short of tumultuous. After being traded to Denver in the spring of 2022 and signing a five year, $242 million contract that tied him to the Broncos for seven seasons, the expectations for Wilson and his team were high, with some people labeling them as possible Super Bowl contenders.
Wilson’s first season in Denver with Nathaniel Hackett as the head coach was a disaster. The team went 4-11 with Wilson as the starter while he threw for 3,524 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. Hackett was fired after the season, and former Super Bowl champion and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was brought into Denver to try and turn the Wilson era around.
The 2023 season was better for Wilson, but he wasn’t playing up to the standard of his pay, and questions started to arise knowing that he still had five full seasons left on his contract. Denver posted a 7-8 record with him as the starting QB, and he threw for 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Wilson clearly didn’t mesh will with Payton, and he was benched with two weeks left to go in the season, essentially putting the nail in the coffin on his time in Denver.
Wilson showed in the past two seasons that he is clearly not the same quarterback that was under center for Seattle, as he struggled to find open receivers over the middle of the field and took a hefty number of sacks. Only four of his 26 touchdowns in 2023 were beyond the line of scrimmage and in between the numbers.
However, he did show some flashes of vintage Russ with his deep-ball accuracy and mobility on some plays. He managed to connect with Courtland Sutton multiple times on outrageously difficult touchdowns such as this one against Buffalo.
In Pittsburgh, Wilson is going to be paired with George Pickens as his top wide receiver. Pickens’ ability to make contested catches along the sideline is like that of Sutton, so it will be expected that Wilson gives him a fair share of deep targets.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said that Wilson wouldn’t have signed with a team where he knew he wouldn’t be the starter. He will have to compete with Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, who began 2023 as Pittsburgh’s starter, but injuries and poor play caused him to not be the teams for sure starter at the end of the year. There will be a hard-fought competition between the two throughout training camp to see who will lead Mike Tomlin’s Steelers in 2024.
A large part of why Wilson’s time in Denver was because he didn’t play up to his contract. Now, on one of the most team-friendly contracts in NFL history, Pittsburgh took a minimal-risk chance to see what the veteran has left. Wilson said recently that he still has lots of fire left in him to go out and compete, and will have a chance to take on his former teammates when the Steelers travel to Denver to face the Broncos in 2024.
