It’s no secret that the brief Russell Wilson tenure in Denver was not without its challenges. In fact, even though Wilson was still starting at quarterback for the Broncos last season, the league’s general consensus was that Wilson would not return to the Mile High City in 2024. This proved to be true. The Denver Broncos announced Russell Wilson’s release on March 4th, and Wilson signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers on March 15th, nearly two years after the Broncos traded two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, Drew Lock, Shelby Harris, and Noah Fant for Wilson.
Despite the fact that Russell Wilson has been in Pittsburgh for three months, the criticisms from Denver continue. Mark Schlereth, a FOX NFL reporter and former Denver Broncos offensive lineman, has been as harsh of Wilson as anybody in the media, and he recently took it to a new level, labelling the veteran quarterback “delusional” and criticizing his “toxic positivity.”
“I think when you’re deluded, you believe you can point a finger at eight million different locations and say, ‘This is why this happened. This is why. That toxic positivism and surrounding yourself with individuals who basically tell you, ‘It’s not your fault, man. That’s not disrespectful. “That’s just a fact,” Schlereth stated on a recent episode of his The Stinkin’ Truth Podcast.
The three-time Super Bowl champion has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with Russell Wilson’s performance and handling of his time in Denver. Schlereth criticized Wilson in May for his tendency to keep the ball for too long, stating that this is what will lead to Pittsburgh’s first losing season in Mike Tomlin’s nearly two-decade tenure.
“You are holding the ball and getting sacks. Sack totals are a quarterback-driven statistic. The Pittsburgh Steelers have an unbelievable record of never losing a season. You take 50 sacks and toss the football in 3.2 seconds. You accept those sacks, and you won’t win games.”
According to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly, Russell Wilson has received extremely excellent early assessments in Pittsburgh.
“One team source said the Steelers haven’t seen somebody work as hard as Wilson at his craft since the early days of Antonio Brown, who was notorious for the effort he put into his game to become the best wide receiver in the league for a span of more than five years,” Kaboly wrote.
While some have simply noted how things appear to be different for Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh, others have turned the finger of blame around and pointed it at Broncos head coach Sean Payton.
“Sean Payton does have a reputation in the NFL of being a guy who’s difficult to deal with. So that’s another reason I want to give Russell the benefit of the doubt with the Steelers,” says Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (h/t Chris Ward of Steelers Now). “Sometimes just getting away from a toxic coach can be a good thing. Maybe you get into a more positive situation. Maybe you can get back to where you were in Seattle.”
The future QB1 for the Denver Broncos
Although there’s no guarantee that his debut will come this season, in time, the QB1 for the Denver Broncos will be rookie quarterback Bo Nix. Nix, a 24-year-old Heisman finalist from Oregon, has impressed the Broncos coaching staff thus far in a three-way battle for the starting job with Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson, with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi heaping praise on Nix’s performance during his first NFL minicamp.
“You can feel his 61 games played in college. With experience, a calmness comes along with it. He certainly doesn’t feel like a rookie,” Lombardi said, per Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com. “There is a maturity level. I think when you draft a guy who is a little bit older, you hope that [maturity] comes with it, but he’s certainly shown that.”
Of course, teams are eager to speak about the highs each of their rookies reached in the offseason, so what the Broncos are saying about Nix could be taken with a grain of salt. But given how toxic the quarterback room in Denver was last year, healthy competition among this Broncos trio of QB’s isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Leave a Reply