NFL insider: ‘It’s possible’ Russell Wilson could be back in the AFC West

NEW ORLEANS — Russell Wilson didn’t get his chance for revenge on the Denver Broncos last year, missing the Week 2 game as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers due to injury. The Steelers got the win, and Wilson received a “petty game ball” from Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin, but that was all.

But that may not be the last chance Wilson has to go against his former team.

With Wilson’s future in Pittsburgh appearing to be in doubt after a slow fade down the stretch and a desultory performance in a wild-card loss at Baltimore, Wilson appears to be at the precipice of moving on yet again — and that could take him back into the Broncos’ neighborhood, with their heated AFC West rivals in Las Vegas.

That, of course, is where Wilson’s former head coach in Seattle, Pete Carroll, set up shop last month, allowing the Raiders to join the ranks of AFC West teams featuring coaches with Super Bowl pedigrees. Every head coach in the division has at least one Super Bowl appearance on his ledger, and the only one without a Super Bowl win — Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers — has a national championship from the college ranks to his name.

The Raiders have struggled at quarterback in recent years, starting five different quarterbacks in the last two seasons since then-coach Josh McDaniels unceremoniously dumped longtime starter Derek Carr two years ago.

That could lead Carroll back to Russell Wilson — with whom there has been an apparent thaw in relations since the two were together in Seattle, which helped lead to the March 2022 trade to Denver and the accompanying massive expectations, none of which were met.

“It’s possible Russell Wilson could come there,” longtime NFL insider Mike Sando of The Athletic said recently. “They ended on bad terms, but I think there’s been a warming since then.”

Yet Wilson would likely not be the only part of a solution as the Raiders seek to halt their own QB carousel.

“But Pete will surely want to draft somebody or have other options,” Sando said. “One thing I noticed when he came to Seattle, they tried everything. They signed Matt Flynn, they brought in Charlie Whitehurst, they had Tarvaris Jackson, they drafted Russell Wilson. They were swinging. They had Matt Hasselbeck. We could see some of that, just trying a guy.”

And that says a lot about how Wilson’s star has fallen … from being “the guy” to someone who could be “a guy” as part of a longer-term plan, one of a few options for Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.

“But Pete is very confident — much like Sean Payton — he’s very confident in his ability to build a program that a quarterback can succeed and win with,” Sando said. “He thinks there’s five guys that are truly special, right? And that’s true. And the rest of them, you’ve gotta know how to play with them.

“That’s what Sean Payton’s doing with Bo Nix. No one thinks Bo Nix is Andrew Luck or the absolute No. 1 overall pick of all time. But if you play right with him, you can be productive and win. That’s what a coach does. I think Pete Carroll is underrated at that because he’s a defensive coach. But he’s really good at it. All of his quarterbacks have succeeded — and exceeded expectations.”

And all of this comes as the curtain appears to be falling on Wilson’s stint with the Steelers. Last week, Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer cast doubts on a potential Wilson return to Pittsburgh.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Glazer said on Media Row in New Orleans. “I think you’ll see a new start for Russell somewhere new.”

And that new place for Russell Wilson could be in a familiar neighborhood with a former boss.

 

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