Insider sounds alarms about how Steelers' Russell Wilson flopped with Broncos

It seems like the one-year marriage between Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson was even rockier than outsiders thought this past winter. 

Per Joe Clark of Steelers Depot, NFL insider Aditi Kinkhabwala of CBS Sports shared some alarming information during a Friday appearance on the "Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show" about Wilson's struggles playing under Payton during the 2023 season. 

"He was constantly climbing out of the back of the pocket," Kinkhabwala said about Wilson. "He struggled with snap counts. He couldn't manage or handle the play-calling. They went from putting a wristband on [him] to, by the end of the season, all the play calls had to be two words and everybody else was required to know what the play calls were." 

The numbers indicate Wilson wasn't a complete disaster for Payton in their one campaign together. According to Pro-Football-Reference, Wilson ended the 2023 regular season ranked eighth in the league among qualified players with a 98.0 passer rating and 22nd with a 50.7 adjusted QBR. Across 15 games, the 35-year-old completed 66.4% of his pass attempts for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions. 

Payton and company nevertheless showed Wilson the door at the start of the ongoing NFL year in March. Dylan Manfre of Sportico is among those who have pointed out that the Broncos will pay $37.8M of Wilson's salary while he features for the Steelers during the upcoming season. 

"There is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very valid reason that Sean Payton...is saying, 'I'm going to pay this guy millions upon millions of dollars to be nowhere near my locker room,'" Kinkhabwala added about Wilson. 

Some believe that new Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Arthur Smith may ultimately prefer to start Justin Fields over Wilson assuming Smith embraces a run-heavy scheme, as expected. Then again, the fact that the Steelers allegedly are considering having Fields return kickoffs suggests he's not remotely close to replacing Wilson atop the depth chart anytime soon. 

Whatever did or didn't happen within the Broncos throughout 2023, it's clear Payton and Wilson needed to get away from each other for the benefit of everyone involved. It's now on Wilson to show he can "handle the play-calling" and other aspects of being Pittsburgh's QB1 between now and September.