After two tumultuous years with the Denver Broncos, a humbled Russell Wilson has regained his swagger under the steady leadership of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
Playing for his fifth head coach in four seasons, Wilson, who turned 36 on Nov. 29, looks like a younger version of himself, maybe not quite the quarterback who led the Seattle Seahawks to two Super Bowls, but a QB who can lead a team on a deep playoff run.
So here’s the question: Has Wilson done enough to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after his playing career wraps up?
There are some who would argue that Wilson already has Hall of Fame credentials. His 45,279 passing yards are No. 17 all time in the NFL and third among active leaders, behind Aaron Rodgers (No. 8, 61,182) and Matthew Stafford (No. 10, 59,030). Wilson’s career passer rating of 100.1 is No. 5 all time. He’s No. 12 all time in passing touchdowns (344).
In 10 seasons with the Seahawks, Wilson helped lead Seattle to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances — including an NFL title after the 2013 season — and eight postseason berths. He’d have two championship rings if not for the horrific interception he threw to Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler that effectively ended Super Bowl XLIX.
Overall, Wilson has a 120-73-1 record (64%) as a starter and has won double-digit games eight times during his 13-year NFL career. He has been voted to nine Pro Bowls and is a four-time All-Pro. According to Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric, which attempts to objectively measure how valuable a quarterback is relative to his peers, Wilson is No. 12 all time among quarterbacks.
He no doubt has impressive credentials. As a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee, however, I’m not entirely sold. Yet.
Wilson certainly is back on a Hall of Fame trajectory, but much like Kurt Warner’s second act with the Arizona Cardinals at the end of his NFL career, he needs a strong finish in Pittsburgh, or wherever else he ends up playing, to earn a gold jacket.
Wilson is 5-1 since taking over as the Steelers’ starter in Week 7, completing 65.8% of his passes for 1,626 yards, with 10 touchdowns and three interceptions. His 104.3 passer rating is No. 4 in the NFL. So he’s doing his part, and he’s doing it differently. Last Sunday in a 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, he posted his first 400-yard passing effort since 2019. Known for dropping “moon balls” to streaking receivers down the sideline, Wilson is now getting the ball out quickly and in rhythm to his checkdowns.
Against the Bengals, Wilson completed 7 of 12 passes for 169 yards to receivers and 22 of 24 passes for 245 yards to tight ends or running backs. According to Next Gen Stats, he completed 23 of 26 passes for 316 yards and all three of his touchdowns against zone coverage, his most yards against zone coverage since leaving the Seahawks.
“It really was this kind of AFC North, we’re going to feed the running backs kind of game,” former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Wilson’s predecessor in Seattle, told FOX Sports after studying the Cincinnati film. “All of our running backs are going to catch a bunch of passes. We’re going to spread the ball around. I just think that’s how we have typically seen him play lately.
“I think just casually what people in the national media [think], and I’ve probably been guilty of this too, is like, ‘Yeah, they are just throwing it deep.’ That’s what I thought watching Red Zone. But I just couldn’t believe it [watching Sunday’s game]. It was a running back fest. It was Tom Bradyesque. It was death by a thousand paper cuts. He played on time.”
FOX Sports draft analyst Rob Rang, who covered Wilson extensively during his time in Seattle, believes that change in approach could lead to a Hall of Fame finish.
“You have to acknowledge that accuracy, the anticipation and the improvisational ability that is always Russell Wilson,” Rang said. “It would be easy to say no, he’s not on the Hall of Fame track. But this is a different era in NFL football. You’re looking for guys who are more of a point guard. And Russell Wilson was the best point guard we’ve seen in the NFL in the last 10 years.”
Wilson became famous in Seattle for his ability to move outside the pocket and make throws like this 25-yard touchdown pass to Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth. According to Next Gen Stats, a league-high 29.4% of Wilson’s attempts have been on the run this season, compared to 21% in his last two years in Seattle.
In Pittsburgh, Wilson is enjoying a similar supporting cast to what he had in Seattle, including a top-notch defense and running game — and a positive, charismatic, defensive-minded coach who lets his quarterback lead the offense.
And it doesn’t hurt that he’s succeeding for one of the NFL’s bedrock franchises.
“I think when you do it with certain franchises, it matters,” Hasselbeck said about Wilson’s Hall of Fame candidacy. “If you have a great career in Cincinnati, or Houston or Jacksonville — some of those places — it doesn’t count the same as having a great career in Pittsburgh or Houston or Dallas or San Francisco.
“I don’t think I realized this when I was playing, but there are levels to organizations when it comes to those conversations. Prime-time television, fan base and Hall of Fame voting. The Pittsburgh Steelers are definitely considered NFL royalty when it comes to that stuff.”
Wilson said before the season started that he wants to play another five years and win two more Super Bowls. While those comments seemed absurd at the time, coming off two so-so years at Denver, they look a little more attainable with the Steelers sitting atop the AFC North.
Do the Pittsburgh Steelers have an elite QB in Russell Wilson?
Wilson is playing for $1.21 million for the Steelers this season, as he received $37.79 million on the final payout of his contract in Denver. The Steelers reportedly would like to keep both Wilson and Justin Fields next season, but that seems unlikely with what both players should command on the open market.
There’s also the future of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to consider. He previously was the head coach of the Falcons, and he recently turned down overtures to replace Mack Brown at North Carolina, but Smith is likely to have other suitors. Wilson has been a perfect fit in Smith’s offense.
So there are uncertainties ahead, but after his time in Denver, Wilson landed in a perfect spot to resuscitate his career.
Warner served as backup to Eli Manning with the New York Giants and later Matt Leinert in Arizona before winning the starting job with the Cardinals. That team’s 2009 Super Bowl run helped Warner get his gold jacket.
Wilson could use a similar rebirth in Pittsburgh to cement his Hall of Fame legacy.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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