Former Denver Broncos' QB Russell Wilson landed on his feet with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has been surprisingly efficient thus far. Wilson has started the last two games for the Steelers, and the team has won both of those starts at home. They've beaten the New York Jets and New York Giants.
Both were primetime games as well, and in these two games, Wilson has gone 36/57 for 542 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He's been sacked just five times and has a passer rating of 111.9, which would be the best in a season in his career. He's also averaging 271 yards per game, which would also be the best of his career.
Is Russell Wilson back?
Sure, the Steelers do have some tough matchups down the stretch, but Wilson has taken the starting job from Justin Fields and hasn't looked back. The Denver Broncos traded a boatload of draft picks and players to the Seattle Seahawks during the 2022 NFL Offseason for Wilson. The QB made 30 starts in two seasons, went 11-19, and was cut by the Broncos at the beginning of this past offseason.
It's an NFL-record $85 million in dead cap that Denver needs to absorb, but don't look now, the Broncos are 5-3 and have totally overhauled their QB room. Bo Nix played the best game of his NFL career in Week 8 and is beginning to show progress week to week. The Steelers clearly have a Band-Aid solution at QB with Wilson, and for the Broncos, Nix is obviously more of a long-term option.
While the move to cut Russell Wilson seemed to be unpopular for some in Broncos Country, it's what the team needed to do. At the end of the day, no team is going to sustain long-term success without drafting and developing a QB, and after years of the Band-Aid QB solutions by the Broncos' front office, they finally took the right step and went after Bo Nix.
Pittsburgh is now on their bye week, but they still have to play the Washington Commanders, Baltimore Ravens twice, Cleveland Browns twice, Cincinnati Bengals twice, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
I mean, I'm not sure I have ever seen a more brutal stretch of games that the final nine for the Steelers. They have all of their AFC North divisional games in the second half of the season and still have to deal with other teams like the Commanders, Eagles, and Chiefs, who all have good things going for them.
It will be interesting to see if Russell Wilson can survive this stretch with the Steelers or if the tougher opponents will catch up with him.