Steelers QB Russell Wilson Isn’t Listening to the Outside Noise

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson and the entire offense have received a lot of flak for the slow start during the preseason. Stephen A. Smith thinks the Steelers have last place in the AFC North written all over them.

Wilson is not worried about what the naysayers are saying, however. The outside noise has never affected him.

“I never had it to keep me going,” Wilson said. “I’ve never been — I don’t know why — I’ve just never been worried about what other people think. I think ultimately I focus on, as I mentioned to you guys — obviously my faith means everything to me. God chose me for this, and He chose me to play this game. I’m one of 32 men in the world that get to do what I do, get to play this game every day. And you know, there’s eight billion people in the world, and for whatever reason, I get to be one of these guys. You know, I’m fortunate guys get to do this and walk into these white lines. And so, I always have to have great faith and just great belief. And so that’s just kind of in my spirit of me every day.

“And so for me, I don’t really focus on the outside part of it, I just focus on what God put in the inside and in terms of who he chose me to be, and just focus on that part of it. And then work your butt off every day. You know, this is the part where you just work on the fundamentals. You work on your craft. You’re obsessed with it. You’re obsessed with learning, that part of it, and that’s the part that makes it great.”

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson before a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 17, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The first-team offense has scored zero points through two preseason games. Russell Wilson thinks everyone needs to relax, though. Everything will get ironed out.

“First of all, it’s the preseason,” Wilson said. “I think there are always highs, there’s some things that we’ve done really well. There’s some things we need to be better at. That’s a part of the preseason. You learn things and you translate that to the practice field, as well.

“Somebody asked me if we were concerned right now. Absolutely not. The reason being because the level practices we’ve had against one of the best defenses every day. How we’ve shown up there. The best thing we can do is just slow our minds down and play really clean football, and just enjoy the process. There is going to be a time during the season where it is going to be the first quarter and we didn’t score. Are we going to panic and worry? Absolutely not. We are going to win the game in the fourth quarter and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Wilson and the starting offense will play in the final preseason game against the Detroit Lions on Saturday. Due to the inefficiencies on offense, Mike Tomlin said he got an incomplete study on Wilson in Saturday’s 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“Yeah, we’re playing,” Wilson said. “We’re all playing. I’m excited to get back on the field. … I think the big thing for us is just executing, us making our plays and doing our thing.”

Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.