2 years post-Seahawks trade Russell Wilson signing with Steelers. And Bobby Wagner’s next?
Forty years after Steelers legend Franco Harris signed with the Seahawks, Seattle legend Russell Wilson is signing with...
Pittsburgh.
Will it be a Harris-like cameo and career fade? Or will this prove to be the new beginning Wilson has been seeking for two years?
The former Super Bowl-champion and nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback the Seahawks traded to Denver two years ago announced online Sunday night he is signing with the Steelers for 2024.
Wilson did it by echoing the Styx’s 1970s anthem “Renegade” Pittsburgh fans rock to during Steelers home games.
Days earlier, the Broncos announced they were releasing the 35-year-old Wilson. He won just 11 of 30 starts in his two seasons after Denver traded three players and four top draft choices to Seattle in March 2022. The Broncos then gave him a $254 million contract extension.
He never played a game under that new deal, which was to take effect for the 2024 Broncos season. Denver is paying Wilson $39 million guaranteed to play for Pittsburgh this year.
The Steelers signed him for the veteran minimum, $1.21 million, on a one-year contract. It’s basically a trial.
Some see Wilson will be competing with 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett for the quarterback job on a Steelers offense that has had trouble gaining yards and scoring for years.
Yet Wilson wouldn’t be signing with Pittsburgh if he didn’t think he will be starting there.
In theory he could have signed anywhere after the Broncos released him, including with QB-needy Las Vegas, New England, Atlanta and Washington. He reportedly met with the New York Giants this past week. Wilson then spent six hours this past weekend talking with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
The Steelers benched Pickett after he started 12 games for them last season. He had surgery to repair a high-ankle sprain in December. Yet when he was healthy enough to play again late last season, the Steelers started Mason Rudolph — including in Pittsburgh’s first-round playoff loss at Buffalo in January.
Rudolph is an unrestricted free agent available for any team to sign this week when the market opens for negotiations Monday and signings Wednesday.
Pickett has two years remaining on his rookie contract in Pittsburgh.
Bobby Wagner free agency
All signs remain Bobby Wagner will be like Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs for Seattle’s new defense and new coach Mike Macdonald in 2024.
Gone from it.
This week, Wagner will be fielding contract offers from teams other than the Seahawks. He’s an unrestricted free agent.
“It’s currently viewed as unlikely that he returns to the Seahawks,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported online Sunday night.
The 34-year-old nine-time Pro Bowl linebacker had a career-high 183 tackles last season for Seattle.He has said he wants to play a 13th NFL season in 2024.
“One-hundred percent,” Wagner said in January.
He’s been waiting for an offer he likes from the Seahawks.
Seattle general manager John Schneider said at the league’s scouting combine in Indianapolis Feb. 27 he was planning to meet with Wagner this past week.
As he did last year when he signed a one-year deal to return to the Seahawks after a 2022 season away playing for the Los Angeles Rams, Wagner is representing himself in contract talks with teams. He does not have an agent.
The News Tribune asked Schneider two weeks ago at the combine if Wagner is a special case in considering whether to sign back, because of his legacy as a Hall-of-Fame caliber linebacker and captain for Seattle.
The GM mostly avoided the question.
“It’s sitting down with all those guys next week (the week of March 4-10),” Schneider said. “That’s what I was trying to let everybody know (when speaking at the combine): We are going to be doing it with agents this week, as well. Like, hey , we are going to try to figure out together, what is your vision? We are trying to mix those things together.
“We literally are just getting done hiring (coaches). So you think about all of us sitting in a room together, we are all like getting to know each other, what’s important to you, what’s important to all these different people.
And so Mike and I we got together, we’ve got a vision of where we want to take this thing. But you’ve got to get into the specifics of the positions, too, and understand what is important to those guys in order to get the buy-in with the staff.’’
This story was originally published March 10, 2024 at 10:23 PM.
