LATROBE - Russell Wilson arrived for his first training camp at Saint Vincent College with the Steelers ready to prove himself and prepared to lead the team to its goals.
And those are?
"Our mission is to win it all, to win the Super Bowl," Wilson said Wednesday as the Steelers reported here for the first day of training camp 2024. "But we've got to do the work necessary. It doesn't just happen overnight. That's in our control."
Wilson isn't just paying lip service to that goal. As a former Super Bowl champion and quarterback who twice led the Seattle Seahawks to the NFL's championship game, he knows what it takes to climb that mountain.
It's something that made the 35-year-old attractive to the Steelers when he was released by the Denver Broncos in a salary-cap related move this offseason. The Steelers feel they have a team capable of making a run at a championship. And in Wilson, who enters training camp in "pole position," in the words of head coach Mike Tomlin, to be the team's starting quarterback, they have another player who can help them get there.
Wilson, who won a starting job in 2012 with Seattle as a rookie, knows that it takes more than just talking about those goals.
"Internally, your expectations for yourself have to be higher than everyone else's," Wilson said. "I remember when I was a rookie, I was a third-round pick, the 75th pick overall. I was the third-string quarterback on the roster. I was determined I was going to take that job. That's got to be the mentality every day. That's the mentality every day. Try to be your best. God has given me a ton of talent. Anyone that's here staying in those dorms has a ton of talent. How do we make the most of that? You do it with great confidence and composure and an edge when you play."
A nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback, Wilson has played with that edge and desire throughout his career. He's led his teams to a 115-72-1 record in his career, throwing for more than 43,000 yards with 334 touchdowns compared to 106 interceptions.
Last season in Denver, he completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdown passes and eight interceptions in 15 starts.
That is twice the number of touchdown passes that Steelers quarterbacks threw in 17 games last season, giving the team hope for a much-improved offense this season under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
With a new offense and new teammates, Wilson took the step of having the team's receivers and tight ends work out with him in Los Angeles and San Diego since the end of minicamp.
"We got a lot of work in. That's the good part of the offseason. You get that time and attention by throwing a bunch," Wilson said. "We threw a bunch at UCLA and San Diego, spent some time together, going to dinner, just hanging out and having a blast, working out in the weight room and just getting after it. We're excited about that. That time and attention will pay off."
He also has an attention to detail.
Wilson walked into the Rooney Hall, where the team stays here at Saint Vincent College, with the playbook tucked under his arm.
He's not just spent the past few months learning his new teammates, but also learning the new playbook.
"Everybody is digital nowadays, but I'm old school. I've got a mixture," he said. "I've got a pen and paper and take notes, but I also have the digital. I do both."
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The goal is to have a complete understanding of everything Smith is trying to accomplish.
"It's always about trying to understand the offense in its full capacity, not just me, but everybody, and what we're trying to accomplish," Wilson said. "We definitely have that. Arthur Smith has done a great job of making sure we have that. Now, with us being away for a little bit, I think everybody has that.
"Now we can see how much we grew from the offseason until now. We've still got to work for it. It takes that extra time studying the playbook at the end of the night, that extra time before you go to bed, that 30 minutes. You take your yellow and blue and orange highlighter and taking your notes, asking the right questions. It's all a part of it. It's all a part of learning."
With the playbook mastered, he can do the rest of his job, which is to be a leader and win football games.
Wilson doesn't take those things for granted.
"I look at it as I have to lead us the way I'm supposed to," he said. "I know how to do that at the highest level. I just want to be my best every day. It's our team. It's our opportunity to win. It's our opportunity to do what we want to do, and that's my focus."
