The Steelers made several changes on the offensive side of the ball this offseason with the hiring of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and the acquisitions of quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields at the top of the list.
During an interview last month, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said all three men were “somewhat scalded” by their 2023 experiences. Tomlin added that those experiences left them with “something to prove” now that they are in Pittsburgh.
Wilson spoke to reporters from Steelers OTAs on Tuesday and he characterized things a bit differently than Tomlin when it came to his mindset for the 2024 campaign.
“I wouldn’t say I’m scalded,” Wilson said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “I would say that if anything, I’ve just learned a lot and I think that internally you get better, you get tougher. You use your experiences, use the challenges that you’ve gone through to be the best version of you. And so I don’t blink and I’m looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity.”
Wilson may have a different way of setting the stage for the coming year than Tomlin did, but the end result isn’t much different. The two years in Denver were a step in the wrong direction and failing to right the ship with the Steelers this year will make it difficult to believe that Wilson can move back to where he was during his best days with the Seahawks, so there’s plenty to prove in the coming months whether he couches things that way or not.
