When the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Russell Wilson in 2024, the hope was that he would provide the upgrade under center the team was looking for after years of ineptitude at the position.
After missing the first six games due to injury, Wilson returned in Week 7 and was a clear upgrade over Justin Fields and anyone else the Steelers had at quarterback the past few years.
However, things went off the rails for him over the final five games, as Wilson and the Steelers’ offense struggled mightily en route to another one-and-done trip in the playoffs. That end result has led to doubts about Wilson’s future in Pittsburgh.
But it appears the Steelers are indeed interested in bringing Wilson back in 2025, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“Pittsburgh has expressed an interest in bringing him back and I think we start there because they’ve got first dibs on the guy,” Schefter said on ESPN’s Get Up. “But it has to make sense for both sides, and if there’s a deal there that works for both of them, then they go ahead and do it. If not, then we start to flush out the options.”
Wilson has made it clear on multiple occasions that he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, and he recently revealed that the two sides have indeed had conversations about staying together.
“Yes, we have been starting to talk a little bit,” he said on The Pat McAfee Show. “We’ve had our meetings and everything else, just getting into it. So I think that it’s an exciting time to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and the opportunity of what we can do.”
While retaining Wilson won’t exactly be exciting considering his lackluster finish to the 2024 season, it’s not like the Steelers are flush with options. They’re out of the range of one of the top signal-callers in the 2025 NFL Draft with the No. 21 overall pick, and the free-agent market at the position isn’t great.
Sam Darnold is currently the best of the bunch of pending free agents but isn’t even guaranteed to be available. Even if he is, the Steelers would be facing a situation in which they have to unload a ton of money on a signal-caller who has just one good year under his belt and isn’t guaranteed to be that big of an upgrade, if at all.
Aaron Rodgers might be cut loose by the New York Jets, but that’s no guarantee, either, and the Steelers reportedly aren’t interest in going that route.
Another possible option is to simply re-sign Fields, but the Steelers likely prefer Wilson over him, as evidenced by the fact that Fields was not inserted into the lineup amid Wilson’s end-of-season struggles.
The Steelers could have some competition for Wilson’s services, and namely from the Las Vegas Raiders, who recently hired Wilson’s former head coach, Pete Carroll, and have a need at the position.
The Raiders have a ton of cap space and would be a formidable foe for the veteran signal-caller. However, the Steelers offer a better chance to win, which gives them a leg-up for the soon-to-be 36-year-old quarterback.
Whatever the Steelers do at quarterback, they’ve got to beef up their weapons on offense or they can expect a similar result to 2024.
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