Russell Wilson pushed for ‘unprecedented, massive’ contract guarantee before Steelers deal
The worst they can say is no — and they all did.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported on Monday morning that Russell Wilson’s agent tried getting teams interested in signing the quarterback to agree to an “unprecedented massive” player option for 2025.
“Wilson’s agent, Mark Rodgers, was calling around the league in recent days to see if some team would tack on an unprecedented, massive player option for 2025 to give Russell Wilson the right to lock in future guarantees,” Pelissero said on “Good Morning Football.”
“No one was willing to bite on that clause and so at that point, the decision was in Wilson’s hands.”
Wilson agreed to sign with the Steelers for one year and the league minimum of $1.2 million.
Since Wilson is owed $39 million from the Broncos, who announced last week their plans to release him, and the money is offset, he was never going to make any more money this upcoming season off of this contract.
It allowed the Steelers to give the 35-year-old a chance without much of a hit to their salary cap.
But if any team had agreed to the player option then they would have put themselves at risk of ending up in a similar position that the Broncos found themselves in this offseason.
Pelissero reported that he expects Wilson and Kenny Pickett, who will be entering his third season in the NFL, to compete for the starting job in training camp.
Wilson had an “exploratory meeting” with the Giants on Thursday before he flew to Pittsburgh.
“There were a couple of strong advocates for Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh throughout the process,” Pelissero said. “One of them was the veteran defensive lineman Cameron Heyward who like Russell Wilson is a former Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award winner. Heyward was certainly a strong voice in the locker room in wanting Wilson brought aboard.
“The other was head coach Mike Tomlin who spent a lot of time with Wilson in a visit to the team facility on Friday… (Wilson) had another in-depth conversation with Tomlin on Sunday and then announced (the decision) himself in a hype video on social media.”
The Broncos announced their plans to release Wilson after two underwhelming seasons in Denver.
The first season saw the team fire head coach Nathaniel Hackett after 15 games, the second saw Wilson clash with Hackett’s replacement, Sean Payton, who gave Wilson an ultimatum to alter the injury guarantees in his contract or get benched.
With the Broncos sitting at 7-8 and their playoff chances on life support, the team benched Wilson.
It all but guaranteed his time with the franchise was over.
Wilson, who led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl, finished his Broncos career with 6,594 passing yards, 42 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
To announce his decision Sunday night, Wilson posted a 48-second video of Steelers fans with the message: “Year 13. Grateful. Steelers.”