The 2023 NFL season saw a lot of different storylines and was not short of any drama. Some of that drama included the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson’s souring situation.
With Wilson’s time in Denver likely coming to an end, rumors have been swirling of where he could end up. According to a former NFL player, he might be heading east. What’s going on?
Russell Wilson Rumored To Be Joining Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024
Late in the 2023 season, the Broncos benched Wilson. According to Wilson, the team had given him an ultimatum following the team’s victory over the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. They told him to either change his contract or get benched, and he chose the latter. More specifically, the Broncos wanted him to adjust his $37 million injury guarantee.
“They definitely told me I was going to be benched and all that,” Wilson said to ESPN. “That whole bye week, I didn’t know what was going to be the case … I wasn’t going to remove the injury guarantee.”
Wilson was later benched by head coach Sean Payton in favor of Jarrett Stidham, who finished the year out. Wilson concluded the season having played 15 games, passing for 3,070 yards, 26 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. The Broncos were 7-8 under his lead.
“A little birdie told me, and I said this many shows ago, Russell Wilson’s coming on over to the [Pittsburgh] Steelers,” Chad Johnson said on his podcast, Nightcap, alongside Shannon Sharpe and Gilbert Arenas. Johnson wouldn’t elaborate on who the “little birdie” is.
Wilson was traded to the Broncos by the Seattle Seahawks in 2022. Denver sent five draft picks and three players for Wilson and a fourth-round pick: two first-rounders, two second-rounders, one fifth-rounder, Drew Lock, Noah Fant, and Shelby Harris.
After the trade, Wilson signed a five-year, $242.5 million deal with the Broncos that included $161 million guaranteed and a $50 million signing bonus. He holds a $35.4 million cap hit in 2024 and $55.4 million in 2025. The deal includes an out in 2026 when he’ll be 37 years old, but he likely won’t make it past this offseason.
In his two seasons with Denver, Wilson has passed for 6,594 yards, 42 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions. In his 12-year career as a whole, though, he’s passed for 37,059 yards, 292 touchdowns, and 87 interceptions. He’s a nine-time Pro Bowler, one-time Super Bowl champion, and a one-time second-team All-Pro.
The Steelers, on the other hand, have had a plethora of quarterback issues in their own right. The team drafted Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but he hasn’t met expectations. On top of injuries, he’s played in just 25 games where he’s passed for 4,474 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.
In 2023, the Steelers played both Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph in the wake of Pickett’s injury. Trubisky played in five games, passing for 632 yards, four touchdowns, and five interceptions. Rudolph, however, played in four games where he passed for 719 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.
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The main issue, though, is that the team released Trubisky already, and Rudolph is an impending free agent. That leaves just one quarterback under contract in 2024, and that’s Pickett. Considering all of that, the Steelers will for sure add a quarterback, it’s just a question of if they add a starter or just a backup.
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