PITTSBURGH — With coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan standing to his right, new Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson was clear about his motivation in signing with the Steelers for the 13th year of his decorated NFL career.
“I wanted to be able to win championships with Coach Tomlin and these guys in the locker room,” Wilson said Friday afternoon, speaking publicly for the first time since signing a one-year contract for the veteran minimum with the Steelers. “… It’s a great place to be grateful for the opportunity to be able to get after it and do what we came here to do. And that’s to win football games.”
Wilson is currently the only quarterback under contract with the Steelers after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett was traded to the Eagles on Friday. The team publicly committed to Pickett as the starter earlier this offseason, and Khan expressed “full faith” in the Pitt product, but Wilson’s addition was clearly more than just the “strong competition” Steelers brass promised Pickett entering his third season.
And though Wilson was clear about his reasoning for signing in Pittsburgh, he artfully side-stepped questions about his exact role with the team. Wilson spoke before the report of Pickett’s trade.
“I come in with the mindset of just being the best version of me every day,” Wilson said, asked if he came in with the mindset of being the team’s starting quarterback. “I think that’s always the plan. What we’re trying to do is for me, I want to help our football team win. I think that’s the job of the quarterback role is to help the Pittsburgh Steelers win and that’s always been the goal every day. And so the goal is to get more trophies and to do everything we can to win.”
And asked about his expectations, Wilson said, “I’m expecting us to win.”
He continued: “I think I’m really excited about just the opportunity to really be the best version of myself every day. Bring that to the table. I know what it looks like to win. Coach obviously knows what it looks like to win. This team does, and more importantly the city of Pittsburgh does. So I’m excited about it.”
That winning culture, Wilson said, was a driving force in his decision to sign with the Steelers after a short free agency — the first time in his career he’s been on the open market.
“I got to talk to Omar, to Coach Tomlin on Zoom,” Wilson said. “It was supposed to be a 15, 20-minute conversation. Next thing you know it’s an hour and a half later.
“I think that winning is a habit and coach knows what those habits are like and that’s what really fired me up.”
Wilson also spoke with new teammate Cameron Heyward for over an hour on FaceTime while making his decision, along with having phone conversations with Minkah Fitzpatrick and T.J. Watt. He also texted with Pickett immediately after deciding on the Steelers, and he went to dinner with a handful of teammates on Thursday night.
“I look forward to the competition, being the best version of myself, most importantly,” Wilson said. “I think you always try to be the best version of you, and competing with yourself every day. I know the standard, what it looks like. I know what that looks like internally, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. So that’s the No. 1 thing.
“I think the second of all is that you always want to make the room better. And then with making the room better, you make the team better, which what we’re really competing for is adding one more in there, that trophy case over there. So that’s what we’re trying to do together as a team.”
Wilson, who won a Super Bowl during his decade-long tenure in Seattle, arrives in Pittsburgh after a rocky two-year stint in Denver that ended with him on the bench in favor of Jarrett Stidham. The move came after Wilson declined to alter his contract midseason, and the team ultimately released him despite an $85 million charge in dead money. Though Wilson’s numbers in his first season as a Bronco were dismal — 16 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, 39 QBR — he improved in 2023 and threw 26 touchdowns to just eight interceptions with a 51 Total QBR. The Steelers, meanwhile, have thrown a league-low 25 touchdowns in the last two seasons combined.
“You can look at it as growth moments,” Wilson said. “My first year I had my lat (injury), I was playing on it, pushing through it, should I have done that? You compete every day, you got to do what you got to do. And I think that everything didn’t go our way the first year. This past year I felt like myself again. And so I can’t wait to just put on the cleats and go after it.”
Along with Wilson, the Steelers introduced two other free agent signings in linebacker Patrick Queen and safety DeShon Elliott, both who were drafted by the Ravens.
Queen, who agreed to terms with the team on Tuesday, said Wilson signing with the Steelers impacted his decision to come to Pittsburgh.
“It definitely does,” Queen said. “When you got a guy like that who’s known to win, and he probably got a little chip on his shoulder right now, my job is to come and try to help him get the ball back to him, get the ball back to the offense, let him do their thing.
“I think if Russ plays like Russ, this team is scary.”
As Wilson and his new teammates spoke, Tomlin, who celebrated his 52nd birthday by officially signing three free agents Friday, looked on and smiled, nodding as they navigated their news conferences.
Tomlin, entering his 18th season as the Steelers’ head coach, has famously never had a losing record. But the team also hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016. And to Wilson, the urgency to correct the course of recent history is palpable around the building.
“The edge, the desire to win, the work ethic is very evident when you walk in the building,” Wilson said. “You feel it, you sense it, you know it. When you work out with the guys in the weight room, you see it. This is a town that’s won a lot and so the best part about it is that we can control today. We can’t control tomorrow, we can’t control what’s ahead, but we can work for it, and we can go for it, and we can dream about it, but we got to capitalize on the opportunities, and this is just the beginning of it and I’m excited for it.
“It’s going to be a great journey. It’s going to be a challenge. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it at the end and we’re going to make it worth it, and we’re going to do everything we can to be the best version of us.”
