What Russell Wilson reportedly wanted before Steelers deal

It turns out current Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson won't be signing a team-friendly deal to join the Pittsburgh Steelers once he becomes a free agent this coming Wednesday simply out of the goodness of his heart. 

"Wilson's agent Mark Rodgers was calling around to other teams and trying to talk somebody into potentially also giving Russell Wilson a massive, unprecedented player option in 2025 that effectively would've guaranteed future money for Russell Wilson beyond this season," NFL Network's Tom Pelissero explained about the situation during the Monday edition of the "Good Morning Football" program, per Joe Clark of Steelers Depot. "There were no takers. At that point, it was in Russell Wilson's hands. Wilson had a long talk with (Pittsburgh head coach) Mike Tomlin late last night. They decided to move forward." 

Pelissero added that Wilson will "compete" for the starting job with 2022 first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett this summer. Noah Strackbein of Fan Nation's All Steelers reported on Monday morning that Pickett was a "true professional" about the club agreeing to sign Wilson to a deal that will cost Pittsburgh $1.2M for the 2024 season because Denver is on the hook for almost all of the $39M owed to the signal-caller. 

Wilson had what was described as "an exploratory meeting" with the New York Giants before he flew to Pittsburgh ahead of the weekend, and he reportedly was "being advised to sign with the" Las Vegas Raiders at that same time. Pelissero said on Monday morning that "Wilson had a roughly seven-hour meeting with the Steelers on Friday," and both Tomlin and well-respected Pittsburgh veteran defensive lineman Cameron Heyward were "big advocates" of landing the one-time Super Bowl champion. 

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, individuals from The Athletic and Brooke Pryor of ESPN are among those who have suggested Wilson hasn't been promised anything by Tomlin and will legitimately have to "win" the QB1 job by out-performing Pickett in practices and, presumably, during preseason games. Pickett lost the gig this past season to injury and, later, to backup Mason Rudolph, so logic suggests Tomlin expects Wilson will begin September 2024 atop the depth chart.

"In signing 35-year-old Wilson, the Steelers are telegraphing their evaluation of Pickett, suggesting he's on much more tenuous footing than publicly expressed," Pryor wrote for a piece published early Monday morning. "The move also points to another internal belief: the Steelers are in a win-now mode and believe they're a quarterback away from erasing a drought of playoff wins that extends all the way back to 2016."