Steelers South Side Scoop: Pat Freiermuth on James Suspension, Is Russell Wilson a Good Teammate? (+)

PITTSBURGH — What kind of teammate is Russell Wilson?

That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer since even before the Pittsburgh Steelers acquired the veteran quarterback. Wilson has been the subjective of two consecutive contentious exits from NFL teams before arriving in Pittsburgh.

He navigate his own exit from the Seattle Seahawks — where former teammates have not always had flattering things to say about him — and then was booted from the Denver Broncos after two seasons amid a feud with head coach Sean Payton. The Broncos are paying Wilson $39 million to play for the Steelers this season and absorbed the biggest dead cap hit in league history to be rid of him

Despite all that, Wilson has not been a bad player. Wilson has played at least 14 games in each of his 12 NFL seasons. He’s had a quarterback rating below 92 just once. He’s thrown for fewer than 20 touchdowns just once. Wilson has been at least a solid quarterback for a very long time.

So why were two teams so ready to move on from him? He has to be a bad guy, right?