Russell Wilson‘s Pittsburgh Steelers have only hours before the wild-card round against division rivals Baltimore Ravens. What else do they have? Nothing but a losing streak since the Philadelphia Eagles crushed them in the middle of December. However, Wilson has a great opportunity to wipe out all the criticism he is facing with just one thing – winning against Lamar Jackson‘s Ravens (which would not be a common thing!). But the question is, how can he get there? The answer is in one word – teammates. The players he has around him are Russell Wilson’s strength, which is also displayed by his latest Instagram story about his star teammate.

The Steelers QB never misses a chance to appreciate his colleagues and he has proved that in a recent gesture. The onetime Super Bowl champion has endorsed his star linebacker T.J. Watt after he earned a spot on the NFL All-Pro second-team roster this year. And what did Wilson say on the IG story? “Should be in 1st. No one better. @tjwatt90.”

Defense leads the way for the Steelers

The 30-year-old linebacker and NFL Defensive Player Award winner of 2021 has played eight freaking seasons with the Steelers. One noteworthy fact is that T.J. Watt ranks 1st in FF in the entire league right now. The Wisconsin college alumni has done great for the team this year and his total of 6 forced fumbles went a long way in earning a spot in the All-Pro second-team list as an edge rusher.

One more thing Watt is so good at is his sacking skills. The Steelers No. 90 has tackled a total of 61 times and guess what? Out of those, 40 were solo tackles. He also ranks 8th in the league for sacks with 11.5 to his name. That’s why it’s no surprise that Russell Wilson believes he deserves to be on the All-Pro first-team roster.

With that said, while Cam Heyward has made it into the first team list from the Steelers’ defense, the sad thing is no one from the offensive team has made it into the First-Team All-Pro this year. With a middling season in terms of his performance, Wilson has not made it to the list either. And as if there was not enough to think about before kickoff, an Ex-NFLer has dropped a bomb in Pittsburgh by sounding off on Wilson.

Former NFL player heavily criticizes Russell Wilson in favor of backup QB

Former NFL guard and star podcaster Mark Schlereth has criticized the Steelers starting quarterback for his poor performance. Wilson had a great start to his campaign after missing the first six games due to an injury, going 6-1 in his first seven starts. But after week 14, his performances have slid, especially in the game against the Baltimore Ravens, placing him at 6-5. This has been sufficient to convince Mark Schlereth to pick Justin Fields to start ahead of Wilson for the wildcard game against their mighty division rival.

The podcaster, talking about the bold move of starting Fields, said, “I would make that move simply because the Baltimore Ravens wouldn’t have really worked on that very much. And it gives them that run threat at the quarterback the RPO at the quarterback.” That’s something the Steelers star and veteran Russell Wilson really didn’t need ahead of the game.

The Steelers have shown no indications of any such update. But the criticism ahead of this important game makes it all the more vital that Wilson break the shackles of his recent poor performances. His teammates, All-Pro or not, will certainly need him to be at his best to weather the storm and land in New Orleans for the Super Bowl.