When deciding where to throw the football, some quarterbacks obsess over completion percentages and touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Russell Wilson is not one of those quarterbacks.
Wilson is willing to throw caution to the wind and trust his receivers. We’re seeing that play out for the Steelers in a big way, giving them their best quarterback play since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
It’s been obvious since George Pickens’s rookie year that, as he wrote on his eye strips recently, he’s “open fucking always.” Even when he’s covered.
If one man is on Pickens, throw it to him. Chances are he’ll catch it. If two guys are on him, throw it to him. Chances are he’ll catch it.
Wilson is the first Steelers quarterback consistently willing to do something that on the surface is so simple: Throw the ball to 14.
Russ is willing to throw it deep to others, too. He uncorked multiple long balls against the Giants, to multiple receivers. So what if it falls incomplete? So what if it’s picked off? Wilson realizes that the potential reward is worth the risk.
The reward for Wilson and the Steelers has been two wins in two starts. Now, he and the Steelers have nearly two weeks to get ready for a stretch of three games in eleven days against the Commanders, the Ravens, and the suddenly resurgent Browns.