Payton Wilson made five tackles in his 2025 debut for the Steelers, but you might not have noticed his presence. Of his five tackles, he only made one impact play, tackling Justin Fields for a loss of 4 on a 3-and-1 play and forcing a field goal. On his other tackles, you’ll find him chasing down plays beyond the first-down marker.
For all the hype that surrounded Wilson entering his second season, he underwhelmed in the opener. Granted, you could say the same for just about everybody on defense, but he stuck out in a bad way for Chris Hoke. The former Steelers DL, now an analyst, called out the talented ILB on KDKA’s Nightly Sports Call.
“No-show by Payton Wilson in the tackles. You’re an inside linebacker, you’ve got to be one of the top two or three guys in tackles in the game”, he said. “Didn’t see a lot of him. I think that’s what he meant at halftime when Coach [Mike] Tomlin was talking about guys getting on, getting off blocks, shedding blocks, making plays. He’s one of those guys. He’s got to look at the film and improve. I believe that he did not get off blocks enough and needs to make more plays for this Steelers defense”.
Payton Wilson finished in a four-way tie for the fifth-most tackles on the team. That included Chuck Clark, who only played half the game after DeShon Elliott’s injury. And Elliott had six tackles before he left. Patrick Queen finished with eight tackles, as did Alex Highsmith.
In a game in which the defense gave up 32 points and forced no turnovers, the inside linebackers underwhelmed. Queen, at least, stepped up to make a play late with a key pressure. Payton Wilson felt pretty anonymous for most of the game, despite the Jets’ run-heavy approach.
Granted, we hardly need to single out Wilson after such a poor showing for the unit. But he is the one who set the bar high for himself entering Year 2. In so many words, he painted himself as one of the top inside linebackers in the league. When you hold yourself to such a high standard, you give yourself a lot to live up to.
Wilson can easily rebound next week and make a larger impact. Over the course of his rookie season, he found more and more opportunities to introduce splash into his game. In the Steelers’ season opener, the defensive unit as a whole was clearly not in sync.
While that in itself is a concern, it’s also reasonable to assume the situation will improve in the weeks to come. We’ve seen Payton Wilson play better than this, after all. And it’s not so much that he played poorly, but rather, he had a low impact. It’s worth noting that, for the most part, the Jets attacked the defensive right side, and the Steelers’ tackle numbers broadly reflect that.