Steelers' Arthur Smith Quickly Defends Russell Wilson For His Time With The Broncos

The Pittsburgh Steelers have fixed their two biggest weaknesses from the 2023 season on offense by bringing in a new offensive coordinator and upgrading the quarterback position. The offense has some optimism surrounding them after these changes, and the unit should easily be better than it was in 2023. Russell Wilson provides the Steelers with their most experienced and successful passer since Ben Roethlisberger announced his retirement back in 2021, and Arthur Smith is a proven coordinator.

Wilson has had an illustrious career in the NFL, but his last two seasons with the Denver Broncos have been a bit of a disaster. He was traded to Denver from the Seattle Seahawks ahead of the 2022 season, which wound up being the worst season of Wilson's career. NFL insider Dianna Russini had Smith on her Scoop City podcast, and she had interviewed some of the Broncos' coaches earlier in the week. 

She told Smith about how Denver's coaches spoke about the sacks Wilson took, and how the quarterback play in Denver will be better in 2024. She asked Smith how to get Wilson to take less sacks, and he quickly defended his quarterback while shifting the blame to the coaching staff.

"Well, it's the same thing in coaching. There's sometimes you feel you've got a great play called, and it doesn't work, you may get beat inside or somebody makes a play. There's other times you wish you hadn't called something. But if you're not open to learn from it, or you get defensive about the reality, you know. Why didn't it work? Could you have done something different schematically? If you don't have that humility, you'll never improve."

Head Coach Sean Payton had some sort of issues with Wilson during their time together in Denver. Wilson had Nathaniel Hackett as his head coach for his first season in Denver, but Hackett couldn't do the job and left the team before the end of the regular season. Payton then took the job, and it became clear that Wilson was not in his future plans. Wilson was asked to waive his injury clause during the 2024 season, which would guarantee him money if he got injured, when he refused he was benched by Payton.

Wilson played significantly better in 2023 than he did in 2022, but still got moved to the bench. A big knock on Wilson during his time in Denver were the negative offensive plays, which include turnovers and sacks. The veteran led the league in sacks taken during the 2022 season with 55, and then suffered 45 sacks in just 15 games in 2023. 

In addition to the sacks, Wilson threw 19 interceptions during his time with the Broncos and fumbled 16 times. Wilson needs to minimize these errors if the Steelers want to have any chance of competing in the loaded AFC. Smith made sure to note that these errors could also be on the play-caller. It didn't seem Payton was catering his offense to Wilson's strengths and weaknesses, mainly because he seemed to be done with him before the season was even over.

Steelers' Arthur Smith Will Need To Fix Russell Wilson's Flaws

Smith spoke about how coaching and schematics are important when it comes to putting the quarterback in the best position to make plays. He insinuated that Denver didn't do this. While Smith was one of the best coordinators in the league back in 2019 and 2020 with the Tennessee Titans, his offense was quarterbacked by Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill has about the same mobility as Wilson, and was sacked just 55 times over two seasons.

The run-heavy offense Pittsburgh will be operating should also help Wilson stay out of harms way. When the run game is good, the defense must respect it. This means loading up the box, which will then allow Wilson to take advantage in the passing game. Wilson had his struggles in Denver, but Smith certainly has the capability to bring him back to his old ways.

What do you think about Smith defending Wilson? Let us know in the comments below!

#SteelerNation