Standing in front of a small group of reporters on the second floor of an Indianapolis hotel during the 2024 NFL combine, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan expressed “full faith” in quarterback Kenny Pickett.

Ten days later, just before midnight, Russell Wilson posted a video montage of Steelers fans waving Terrible Towels set to “Renegade” by Styx and tagged the Steelers on his social media platforms, confirming what league sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Sunday night: The Super Bowl-winning quarterback and nine-time Pro Bowler will soon sign with the Steelers on a one-year, team-friendly deal.

In a move that defies the Steelers’ traditional team-building methods and seemingly spurns a foundational tenet of loyalty, Khan’s actions Sunday night spoke louder than his words from less than two weeks ago.

Steelers brass said repeatedly that it wanted competition for the team’s 2022 first-round pick, but a Super Bowl-winning quarterback — even past his prime — is more than just a camp arm to push Pickett. Pickett, of course, is still under contract, but the competition to retain the starting job just got that much tougher — and it might not be a competition at all.

In signing 35-year-old Wilson, the Steelers are telegraphing their evaluation of Pickett, suggesting he’s on much more tenuous footing than publicly expressed. The move also points to another internal belief: the Steelers are in a win-now mode and believe they’re a quarterback away from erasing a drought of playoff wins that extends all the way back to 2016.

From Wilson’s perspective, the move makes perfect sense. In Pittsburgh, Wilson has a clear path to a starting job in an organization that has a rich, winning tradition and a well-established structure under a future Hall of Fame head coach. Schematically, Wilson’s skill set and new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s tendencies have the potential to be a match made in football heaven.