The Pittsburgh Steelers will enter the 2024 training camp with Russell Wilson as the starting quarterback. Barring consistently inarguable, elite play from Justin Fields, Wilson will be under center when the 2024 regular season kicks off. Considering that the Steelers' quarterback battle looked like it could have been between Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph, the prospect of Wilson seems like a major upgrade already. However, there have been concerns that Wilson's negative traits will end up derailing Pittsburgh's offense before it has a chance to get started.
While Wilson is an excellent example of Pittsburgh's aggressive approach to rebuilding the roster, he is still coming off a disappointing end to his time with the Seattle Seahawks and two seasons with the Denver Broncos that failed to live up to expectations.
One area that has some worried about Wilson playing quarterback in Pittsburgh is his tendency to take sacks at an alarming rate. Mark Schlereth, who hasn't been kind to Wilson during the 2024 offseason, doesn't just see the sacks as a worry, it's more who is to blame for them. On The Stinkin' Truth Podcast with Mark Schlereth, he brought up Wilson's sack numbers and why they could get in the way of success in Pittsburgh.
"Russ, historically, you look at the amount of sacks he takes. Probably, on average, takes 45 sacks a year. Now, you think about how that limits you as an offense, okay? This is a big issue for Russ and the Steelers... When I talk to guys in Seattle, they'd say, 'Hey man, 35, 40 percent of all the sacks we give up are on Russ', and if you talk to Sean Payton, he would tell you the same thing, maybe more, were on Russ. So, it's an issue."
During the 2018 season with Seattle, Wilson was sacked 51 times, the most in his career to that point. Wilson lowered the number of sacks taken over each of the next three seasons, with only 33 in 2021. However, in 2022, his first with the Broncos, he was sacked 55 times (tied with Fields), which is the most in a season that he has ever taken. Schlereth, speaking from both his personal NFL experience and what other players relayed to him, put most of the blame for those 55 sacks at Wilson's feet, but that doesn't tell the whole story.
The Broncos saw Wilson as the savior of the franchise, similar to when Peyton Manning finished his career in Denver, but that was made all the more challenging thanks to a porous offensive line. Denver's 2022 offensive line ranked 21st in the league, which would explain the difficulty Wilson had staying upright.
While Wilson can certainly shoulder some fault for the high number of sacks during his time with the Broncos, when Sean Payton invested in the trenches, it had an impact. The 2023 offensive line for the Broncos rose to 7th in the NFL, and Wilson was sacked ten fewer times than in 2022.
Steelers Ready To Keep Wilson Upright
Denver's offensive line groups in 2022 and 2023 were areas that Payton was charged with improving when he was hired as the Broncos head coach. In Pittsburgh, though, Wilson should have a very different experience than he did in Denver. Omar Khan and Andy Weidl have their fingerprints all over the offensive linemen that the Steelers have brought in since 2023, including Broderick Jones and Isaac Seumalo.
With new Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith rolling out the first legitimate offensive attack in Pittsburgh since before Matt Canada, having a reliable offensive line in front of the starting quarterback will take a great deal of pressure off the offense as a whole.
The Steelers doubled down on the team's investment in the trenches during the 2024 NFL Draft by selecting Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier, and Mason McCormick in three of the first four rounds. Fautanu and Frazier have been tapped as probable Week 1 starters, with James Daniels currently ahead of McCormick. If Pittsburgh's offensive line can do what the Broncos couldn't and give him time to do his job, Wilson will have a much better chance at getting back to the version of himself that got the Seahawks a Super Bowl victory.
