Former Denver Broncos starting quarterback and likely future Hall of Famer Russell Wilson might be hitting free agency for the second consecutive offseason in 2025. It's been a steep decline for Wilson since he was sent to the Broncos in a blockbuster deal back in 2022, and things were as bad as anyone had seen them over the course of the last two months with Pittsburgh.
The honeymoon phase for Wilson and the Steelers lasted a good while as he helped the team get to a 10-3 record at one point after inexplicably being handed the starting job over Justin Fields, who was playing reasonably well at the time.
But Pittsburgh's offense was taken to new heights with Russ at the helm, and Mike Tomlin looked like a genius as his team steamrolled to 10 wins, securing yet another winning season for the future Hall of Fame head coach. But the Steelers peaked too early, and the walls of their fortress in the AFC North came crumbling down.
The Steelers entered the NFL Playoffs this year as one of the coldest teams in the league. To their credit, their four straight losses at the end of the regular season came against four of the best teams in the NFL (or at least four teams with winning records) and they were officially eliminated in brutal fashion on Saturday night against the Baltimore Ravens.
Was that the last time Russell Wilson will take the field as an NFL starting quarterback?
Is Russell Wilson done in the NFL as a primary starting quarterback?
Wilson threw 16 touchdown passes compared to five interceptions this past season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but some of the maddening issues he had as a member of the Denver Broncos carried over to Pittsburgh. Wilson was sacked 33 times in 11 games this season after being sacked 45 times in 15 games last year. At exactly three sacks per game for the last 26 games, Wilson is nothing if not consistent in that regard.
While Wilson's patented deep ball was still working this season, his ability to scramble and create offense outside the pocket was not. At 3.6 yards per carry, this was easily the worst rushing season of Wilson's career to this point and it's even worse when you consider the fact that his volume of carries was extremely low by comparison.
The numbers over 11 games will tell you that Wilson could still be a serviceable starter in the NFL. And maybe he can be. But the circumstances have to be just so that it's hard to think of any place outside of Pittsburgh that will provide Wilson with the ability to both improve his legacy as well as actually start meaningful games.
The Steelers were a perfect landing spot for Russ in his post-Denver career, and he's getting run out of town by their fan base online as we speak.
Sometimes players wait until it's a year too late to hang up the cleats. At 36 years old, Wilson is not past the point of reasonably being able to play high-level ball but he has obvious limitations that are extremely hard to live with for offensive coordinators. At this stage, Russ has nothing to prove to anybody and it will be interesting to see what his market is like this offseason.
Wilson will still count $35 million toward the Denver Broncos' 2025 salary cap but he is no longer owed any cash by the team beyond this season. His deal is officially off the books in 2026.