New York Giants free agency: What to like, not like, about QB Russell Wilson

The New York Giants expressed interest in free agent quarterback Russell Wilson last offseason. Wilson met with the Giants before traveling to Pittsburgh and ultimately signing with the Steelers. For one reason or another, New York allowed their 2024 life-raft to walk out of the building and sign a one-year, $1.2 million contract with the Steelers. It was understood that he’d be playing at a significant discount due to the stipulations in his contract with the Denver Broncos.

If Wilson was willing to come to New York to either back up or compete with Daniel Jones, it was a massive mistake by Joe Schoen not to make that happen. Wilson revitalized a successful 4-2 team and helped them go 10-7. Pittsburgh’s offense took a large step forward in the first few games Wilson started but took a step back toward the end of the season.

Including the playoff loss against Baltimore, Wilson finished with 2,752 passing yards (7.5 yards per attempt) with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions. He had a beautiful Big Time Throw Rate of 6.3%, which ranked fourth in the NFL, and a turnover-worthy play rate of just 1.6%, which was third best in the NFL.

After the disastrous 2022 season in Denver, Wilson stabilized under Sean Payton last season but was shipped out of town. He found his footing in Pittsburgh and is now available again. He’s no spring chicken at 36 years old, nor is he the long-term answer, but Wilson can still play competent football and keep an offense on track. Let’s go through some tape to prove that fact.

Outside the numbers

One of Russell Wilson’s best attributes is his outside-the-numbers moonballs in one-on-one situations. Wilson delivers these passes with impeccable touch and placement. Here, he delivers a beauty to Van Jefferson (11) for six on third-and-10:

Wilson watches the two boundary deep fourth defenders in Cover-4, with Pittsburgh aligned in a 3×1 set. From under center, Wilson collected the necessary information to see the safeties on his drop back; Kyle Hamilton (14) worked to the numbers and then flashed his eyes to the backside crossing route from the three-receiver side. Van Jefferson (11) ate the leverage of the outside cornerback and created space for himself to the inside. Wilson noticed the coverage shift as he hit his back foot and threw the football up to an open Jefferson with perfect ball placement and trajectory to prevent the defensive backs from making any play on the football. Wilson was also able to make these well-timed passes from the far hash:

Wilson is one of the best in the game at quickly processing information and capitalizing on said information during the initial parts of a play. On second-and-9, the Ravens drop into Cover-2, and Wilson processed it immediately. Watch how Wilson looks at the field side; he stares initially at the No. 2 receiver and the deep half safety to the field just kept gaining depth over the top of that receiver. Wilson held his stare there just long enough to flip his hips and deliver a perfectly timed ball to George Pickens (14), resulting in a touchdown. Ball placement is critical on the deep plane, and Wilson displays this again on third-and-11 against the Cleveland Browns:

Another far-hash dot from Wilson, this time to big Mike Williams (18). The drive and velocity on this throw to Williams’ outside shoulder is made even more impressive when one considers the two unblocked defenders bearing down on Wilson.

He’s confident in his arm talent, which he still possesses. He takes a five-step drop and fires a well-placed ball against Cover-1 before the safety can get to the field side. He lets the ball go right as he hits the top of his drop, understanding the timing and touch needed for the completion.

Whether man or zone coverage, he can accurately deliver these passes outside the numbers; it’s one reason why Wilson’s big-time throw rate is consistently among some of the best in the league. Even his abysmal 2022 season was a 4.4%. The throw against the Giants’ man coverage on first-and-10 above-off-play action is just insane.

Understands leverage/space

Wilson understands how to exploit defensive leverage with proper ball placement. He showed this throughout his career and does it frequently when throwing outside the numbers on the vertical plane:

Wilson connected with Pickens against the Jets. Watch closely how Wilson waits to see where exactly Brandin Echols (26) will be once the receiver commits and accelerates down the field. Echols ends up with his backside toward Pickens and has to flip his hips and carry the receiver down the field; right when that was confirmed, Wilson loaded up and threw a bomb to the outside hip of Pickens, allowing the receiver to contact the now inside defensive back and secure the catch to the outside away from the defender.

Wilson also understands how to quickly read the coverage and attack effectively, as he does against the Ravens’ man scheme. The receivers to the boundary switch their releases, and Pat Freiermuth (88) legally rubbed Jefferson’s defender. Wilson saw the separation and the route’s success and threw with no hesitation, putting the football in a spot away from the defender’s path.

Arthur Smith designed several Mills concept plays against Cover-4/Quarters looks where the No. 2 receiver would run the deep post behind the No. 3’s dig route like we see Calvin Austin III (19) successfully run above. Wilson is reading the deep fourth field safety and seeing if he gains depth on Austin III or if he’s paying attention to Freiermuth; well, it was the latter, and Wilson attacked the — now — lone defender with outside leverage against an inside breaking route for six on this second-and-8.

This is a similar deep post out of a 3×1 set on a third-and-9, but the No. 3 ran a drag route and the Browns dropped to a Cover-2 look with MEG (man everywhere he goes) on the two outside receivers. Austin III caught the Browns’ safety overpursuing to the outside and broke inward while the backside safety was handling cloud duty on George Pickens — the backside X — so Austin III broke into space. Wilson slightly underthrew the pass with pressure in his face, but it still went for a big gain.

Similar to the wheel route above, Wilson does well to find Cordarrelle Patterson (84) for six in the red zone off the clearout route. This was a simple concept; Patterson was quickly identified in a one-on-one matchup with a linebacker in man coverage. Wilson saw it and threw the football high enough to allow the running back to high-point it for six.

Red zone passing

Wilson had solid numbers in the red zone. He completed 24 of 46 passes (52%) with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions.

Wilson does a good job of delivering an anticipatory touchdown pass to Freiermuth in man coverage with a safety over the top. Wilson used his peripheral vision to see the other outside defenders in coverage, confirming him to throw before Freiermuth entered his break.

Wilson does a great job forcing the middle safety to open toward the boundary, allowing Freiermuth to squeeze the seam for a tight touchdown pass. He’s very fluid with his manipulation. Wilson looked, forced the commitment by the safety, took two steps away from the rush, reset, and fired a tight spiral into the midsection of his tight end for six.

The Browns are caught in quarters coverage where the safety is reading and matching the release of the No. 2 receiver, who ran a seven route underneath the clearout, which created a pick that was quickly identified by Wilson. The tight backside drag is picked up by two underneath defenders and no one accounts for Freiermuth, who scored another touchdown on this play.

Middle of the field

Russell Wilson’s height may hinder his ability to attack the middle of the field. He’s more adept and known for attacking outside the numbers, but the veteran quarterback still possesses the necessary touch and feel to carve through zone coverages between the hashes:

The Ravens bail out of a pressure look on third-and-nine to a Cover-2 defense. Wilson does a great job resetting himself away from the rush and finding Austin III splitting the safeties. Wilson displayed the ability to work the middle of the field against Cover-2 defenses; he did well on in-breaking routes that leaned upfield to split the two-high shell.

Wilson still displays creativity and a bit of evasiveness in his elder years, albeit not nearly as much as he had in Seattle. He finds Freiermuth over the middle of the field while maneuvering the pocket on second-and-5 against this Tampa-2 defense.

Here’s another display of creativity. Wilson does a great job keeping his eyes downfield under duress. While he does get in trouble at times, trying to do too much, he also finds solutions that aren’t always apparent.

Negatives

Wilson and the Steelers did struggle down the stretch of the season. He failed to throw for more than 300 yards in his final six games and the Steelers did not score 20 points in the final five games of the season. Wilson isn’t a perfect quarterback, as he potentially looks for his fourth team in five seasons. His desire to extend plays gets him in trouble and forces unnecessary sacks and mistakes, like these two against the Ravens below:

And then this oversight against the Chiefs where Wilson failed to account for the backside safety:

As previously mentioned, he’s not as prone to target over the middle of the field, and he does rely on throws/matchups outside the numbers. This hindered his ability to operate Nathanial Hackett’s quick west coast passing attack, for his inability to effectively see over players much taller than him became a problem.

Final thoughts

Wilson is not getting any younger, but he still offers a much higher floor and ceiling than anything the Giants had at quarterback in 2024. His ability to provide elite accuracy on touch passes over the top — outside the numbers — would work marvelously with Malik Nabers’ skill set.

No quarterback in the NFL had higher Pro Football Focus grades than Wilson on deep passes (20+ yards). He also had the highest completion percentage, the highest yards per attempt, and the second-lowest turnover-worthy play rate on throws that traveled over twenty yards.

The Giants have lacked quarterbacks with a penchant for targeting deep for quite some time. He may not be the long-term solution, but — depending on cost — Wilson makes sense as a bridge quarterback for a potential rookie; he may not make as much sense as last season, but he’s still an option for the Giants to explore.