Recently-retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce thinks the Pittsburgh Steelers’ signing of Russell Wilson will take them to the next level. He believes Wilson is a game-changer and exactly what Pittsburgh needed.

“Dude, this is like the only missing piece right now in Pittsburgh. If Russ is even close to the quarterback he used to be, this is an extremely dangerous team with what they’re working on the defensive side of the ball,” Kelce said on the New Heights podcast with his brother Travis.

Travis Kelce, who is a three-time Super Bowl champion and All-Pro tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs, knows all about Wilson with playing him twice a year when he was in Denver. He agreed with Jason’s statement that he’s going to flourish in Pittsburgh.

“I don’t even know about ‘what he used to be.’ That guy was still balling in Denver at times man, I’ve seen him dissect some teams and make some good throws. I mean, we lost to Denver I think in Denver last year,” Travis Kelce said.

“I think Russ has a lot of good football left in him man. He’s got that ‘it’ factor about him that we’ve seen so many times, and sure enough he’ll bring some veteran presence to that locker room.”

Travis also thinks Wilson paired with Mike Tomlin is a perfect fit.

“We all know how good of a coach Tomlin is and how good that defense it is. So Steelers definitely just got better for sure,” he said.

Wilson was benched by Broncos head coach Sean Payton for the final two games of the season. The two never saw eye to eye, which set up Wilson’s departure after a dreadful two years in Denver. The Broncos will take on an $85 million hit in dead money on its salary cap over the next two seasons because of Wilson’s release. The Broncos are also paying Wilson nearly $38 million this year to play for the Steelers, who will only pay him just over $1 million on a veteran minimum contract.

One veteran AFC personnel executive told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN that Payton never liked Wilson from Day 1.

“Sean never liked him as the guy from Day 1 and went out of his way to make that known,” the source said.

Payton ripped into Wilson on the sideline during a game in Detroit this past season. It seemed more personal than a coach just letting a player have it.

“Hopefully we see him have some more success [in Pittsburgh] knowing that the Broncos wasn’t his best tenure,’ Travis said.

Payton ripped into Wilson on the sideline during a game in Detroit this past season. It seemed more personal than a coach just letting a player have it.

“Hopefully we see him have some more success [in Pittsburgh] knowing that the Broncos wasn’t his best tenure,’ Travis said.

Jason then replied: “It’s tough to know what happened out there in Denver.”

Travis responded, “Man, it’s football. It takes so f****ng much. So many things have to go right. They got hit with some injuries and it just wasn’t as much of a match as everyone thought it would be.”