Wilson embraces newness of Steelers organization
After spending 10 years with the Seattle Seahawks, Russell Wilson is getting accustomed to having a change of scenery.
It happened in 2022 when he was traded to the Denver Broncos. It happened again this past week when he practiced for the first time as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If he entered his new surroundings — his third organization in four years — with any trepidation, the 35-year-old quarterback had a funny way of showing it.
“When you treat every day as Day 1 and realize that every day you try to have a learning experience, you embrace moments and you look forward to challenges, and you look forward to the newness of it all,” Wilson said Tuesday after the first day of organized team activities. “If you have that mentality and you embrace every day, you have to treat every practice, every game, every warmup every day as if you’re getting prepared for the Super Bowl, and like it’s Super Bowl week.
“Even though, it’s OTAs, that’s the mentality our team has.”
Wilson, of course, can share the experience of having prepared for a Super Bowl, doing it twice during his tenure with the Seahawks. He won a championship after the 2013 season, his second in the NFL. And he came within a last-second interception of capturing a second consecutive title.
He hasn’t been back to the Super Bowl in a decade, and he signed a one-year contract with the Steelers in March — after a turbulent two seasons with the Broncos — so he could end his new franchise’s recent run of early postseason exits.
“It’s the same game you’ve always loved when you were a young kid,” Wilson said shortly after walking off the practice field for the first time. “You dream of moments like this, to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.”
Wilson talked about the franchise’s tradition from playing against Ben Roethlisberger to watching Bill Cowher’s teams play. He cited the fan base.
“You feel it every day,” he said. “That’s a special thing. We’re focused on being the best we can be together.”
Wilson is hardly alone in experiencing the newness of the organization. He will play for an offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, who was hired in the offseason after three seasons as Atlanta Falcons head coach.
The Steelers have new assistants coaching quarterbacks and wide receivers, and the latter position group is trying to find its footing after the team’s most experienced pass catcher, Diontae Johnson, was traded to the Carolina Panthers.
In the offseason, the Steelers added Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins and Scotty Miller in free agency and they drafted Roman Wilson in the third round. It was all done to find complementary pieces for starter George Pickens. The Steelers also have Calvin Austin, Denzel Mims, Marquez Callaway and Dez Fitzpatrick bring varying degrees of NFL experience to the mix. None have pieced together the type of productive seasons that Johnson and Pickens have compiled in their careers, and the Steelers still could make a trade for a potential No. 2 receiver.
Not that Wilson, who displays the optimism of a motivational speaker, is giving up on the group of pass catchers he threw passes to on the first week of OTAs.
“There’s a lot of talent, a lot of excitement, a lot of confidence and a lot of ability,” Wilson said. “The guys are learning the process, and that’s what I love. … I love the room and the guys we have. We’re going to compete with those guys and, hopefully, win a lot of games with the guys that we have.”
Wilson invited several of the receivers — Austin and Jefferson among them — to work out with him in San Diego in April. Tight end Pat Freiermuth also accepted Wilson’s invitation.
“With Russ as the leader, he’s going to make sure everybody is on the same page,” Austin said. “He’s a guy we can all learn from. It’s good to have him around as we learn this new offense.”
Smith has allowed Wilson to provide the kind of input that a 13-year veteran quarterback can provide to a young offense. Wilson spent time studying the concepts the Falcons used the past three seasons and what Smith implemented when he was the Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator.
“We share of a lot similarities,” Wilson said, “a lot of experiences. We have a lot to prove, a lot to show, a lot to accomplish. He has big desires. I do, too. We do as a team. We’re all in this together. Knowledge is everything, understanding where we want to go and how we get there and do it in the most efficient way possible.”
That is the message Wilson plans to share with teammates as the Steelers head into the next phase of offseason workouts. Two more weeks of OTAs remain, followed by a three-day minicamp.
“If we embrace the challenge every day and embrace the opportunity, we can go places,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough road, and there will be tough challenges every day but that’s the good thing about it and the thing we love about this game.”
