Payton Wilson sounds like a player who can finally breathe a little.
That’s the tone that came through when the Steelers linebacker joined Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” Podcast and talked about what the switch to new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has meant for him. Pittsburgh’s defense is heading into 2026 with a different look after finishing 26th in total defense last season despite being the highest-paid unit in the league in 2025, and Wilson believes the new setup is helping him get back to the basics.
“We were really tight as a linebacker unit, and they kind of empowered me in a sense to just go to play,” Wilson said. “And then just [Patrick Graham], his schematics, the way he coaches it.
I’m finally just getting back to playing ball, rather than ‘Hey, if you make a mistake they might take you out.’ Or ‘Hey, if you do this wrong, you might come out of the game,’ and you don’t know when you’re coming back.
Not to say I’m going to make mistakes all the time, but now it’s just playing ball and it kind of feels like my last few years of college again. It’s slowed down a lot and I’m just excited to be back out there rather than I guess nervous, not nervous but just anxious.”
Wilson didn’t name names, but the message was hard to miss. The comments read as a shot at the way Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin handled things during his first seasons in Pittsburgh, especially the idea that mistakes carried a quicker hook.
What matters now, at least from Wilson’s perspective, is that the new system appears to give him more room to play through mistakes and learn in real time.
He backed up his second NFL season with 79 tackles and an interception, and the inside linebacker room is expected to stay largely intact in 2026. That gives Wilson a chance to keep building as one of the Steelers’ key defensive pieces, with a little more confidence and a little less tension.
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Arizonas interest makes sense with Will Johnson sidelined by a lower-body injury and five cornerbacks already on the active roster. For Pittsburgh, Jamisons quick landing is another reminder of how fluid the back end of the roster can be once cutdown day passes and teams start looking for experienced cover help. [Read more 🡒]
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Tomlin Finally Revealed What Really Pushed Steelers To Trade Pickens
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Pickens time in Pittsburgh had plenty of talent but also enough friction to make the choice easier to understand in hindsight. The fines and on-field incidents that followed him through his Steelers tenure were part of the backdrop, and Tomlins comments made clear those issues mattered when the team weighed what it wanted next at the position. The larger question now is how far Pittsburgh was willing to go to draw that line, and what it says about the standard the front office wants to keep enforcing. [Read more 🡒]