No sooner had the Steelers drafted Payton Wilson than many who knew him predicted the Steelers were getting a quality linebacker. Of course, every draft has a player people are high on, and then, come training camp, the player does not do as well as predicted.
When Steelers OTAs started in the spring, coaches and fans alike got their first glimpses of what Payton Wilson might be capable of. He began opening some eyes to the fact he might have some great potential. It was hard not to like what we saw.
Then, in early July, Bill Cowher praised Payton Wilson, the player who attended his former college, North Carolina State.
"His athletic ability speaks for itself... It's off the charts," Cowher explained. "You see it in his play. Some people run fast, but they don't play fast. Payton runs fast and he plays fast. He has great cover ability. It's probably made more for today's game than back even 10 or 15 years ago because it's a very wide-open game. It's a game of speed, angles, and understanding the concepts of football. He has all of that. He has proven that the last couple of years with his productivity."
Then, we got to see Wilson in action in his first live-action as a Steelers linebacker. What we saw was very impressive. With his dynamic performance against the Texans, he also received perhaps the highest compliment a Steelers rookie could receive from a former Steelers great.
Craig Wolfley offers elite player comp for Steelers LB Payton Wilson
Payton Wilson, in the Steelers' first pre-season game, showed himself to be a workhorse and a linebacker cut from the Steelers' mold. Compared to most Steelers players, except quarterback Kyle Allen, he played the most snaps on the defensive side of the ball. His stats reflect that as well.
He led the Steelers with seven total tackles (five solo tackles) and one tackle for a loss.
For those of you who might have paid closer attention to his performance above the performance of anyone else, one thing stood out. He had some good ball awareness—almost textbook-like. Whichever direction the play went, even if he was lined up away from the action, many times you could see Wilson end up in the vicinity of the play's ending or in pursuit of the ball carrier—not always, but often.
It was reminiscent of another great linebacker who played for the Steelers once. Thankfully, someone else who played with that linebacker was able to draw the same parallels some of us observed. However, we did not want to say those thoughts blatantly aloud until we could back those opinions with some credibility. Then Craig Wolfley spoke at the end of the game, giving his impressions of Payton Wilson.
Wolfley distinctly observed that Jack Lambert, of all the linebackers to play in the NFL, had the best skills at reading an offense and knowing what direction to pursue the ball's intersection. It was like, wow, he saw the same things some of us saw as well. Payton Wilson's ability to pursue the play in the direction it was going very much resembled what we saw from Lambert back in the day.
Just because a player plays similarly to a former great linebacker does not mean we need to book him a reservation at Canton now. We are saying that he displayed athleticism and skill that other NFL legends had. If he lives up to the potential we saw in his first game, he will have a great career.
Even with the skill he displayed, he has a long way to go before he equals Lambert. Wilson will need to get a bit nastier out there first and perhaps lose his two front teeth. For now, Wilson is a little too spit-polished to resemble Jack Lambert. Possibly, he has the appearance of another great Steelers linebacker named Jack Ham. Well, If he plays like Lambert and looks like Ham, most Steelers fans can live with that.