Reporting from ESPN’s Adam Schefter Tuesday night regarding Russell Wilson and an interesting situation with the Pittsburgh Steelers certainly raised some eyebrows. Now, that same reporting is receiving a ton of pushback.
Schefter, an NFL insider, reported that a league executive said to him that he could see the Steelers releasing Wilson — who signed a one-year, $1.21 million deal in free agency — before the start of the 2024 season if he is outplayed in training camp and the preseason by backup quarterback Justin Fields, whom the Steelers acquired from the Chicago Bears in a trade last Saturday.
Sounds pretty ridiculous, no?
Fox Sports’ Craig Carton and former Steelers offensive lineman Willie Colon certainly believe so.
Appearing on Thursday’s episode of The Carton Show on FS1, Carton and Colon pushed back on the reporting from Schefter and the thinking from the unnamed executive.
“It’s a stupid story and this is why you can’t trust insiders all the time because they’re on other people’s payrolls. And this is a favorite of Justin Fields and his agent, what’s his name? [David] Mulugheta? Whatever his agent’s name is, one of the great agents in football right now. It’s stupid,” Carton said regarding Schefter’s report. “The notion that you’re gonna talk to an executive for another team, and that executive who knows nothing about the inner workings of the Pittsburgh Steelers is gonna tell you that the Steelers are looking at Justin Fields overtaking Russell Wilson?”
Calling it a stupid story seems a bit harsh, but that’s largely what it is. It’s a story from a non-member of the Steelers who talked to Schefter and provided his opinion. Of course, that opinion clearly intrigued Schefter enough to say it on television on Tuesday’s NFL Live segment. It’s gotten the eyeballs necessary and has generated quite a bit of talk.
The overwhelming response to it seems to be how pointless a story is with no actual basis.
“It’s asinine. You have Russell Wilson at no money, right? Russell Wilson’s an accomplished quarterback. And what’s the purpose of this being out there other than to appease Justin Fields and the Justin Fields camp?” Carton said regarding the report. “And just take my opinion out of it. Just walk through it rationally. You are the Steelers, you are every other team. You go out and get Russell Wilson and get other complementary pieces to help him, right?
“And then you go, ‘Oh, well there’s some depth to an unproven quarterback who never had success in Chicago.’ You’re every other executive. I’m a reporter. How would you possibly know what he’s thinking about August and Russell Wilson?”
Carton raises a good point. The Steelers have Wilson under contract for 2024 at the veteran minimum. A player of that caliber with that resume doesn’t come around that cheap all that often — if ever. It’s a unique situation and the Steelers have taken advantage of it. Why would they willingly toss that aside and cut ties with Wilson before the season even started?
If Wilson gets outplayed by Fields and the Steelers make a switch at starting quarterback, Wilson can sit and provide good depth. It’s unlikely he’d be a malcontent in the locker room. Look at how he handled his benching in Denver last season. Teammates praised him for how he handled it and then worked behind the scenes. He would do the same thing in Pittsburgh.
Former Steelers offensive lineman Willie Colon took it a step further and said it doesn’t matter how Wilson plays in August; he’s going to be the Steelers’ starting quarterback to open the season.
“It’s BS. It’s all nonsense. Even the notion of him, I think that one reporter said he won’t even finish the season, because he’ll be gone. Like they’re gonna get rid of him the end of the day. The starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers right now is Russell Wilson. Period. Bottom line. That’s what Mike Thomas said,” Colon said. “By the way, he could be terrible in August. He’s the opening day starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And the reason the Steelers in their own minds have Super Bowl aspirations is because they’ve got a veteran quarterback in Russell Wilson who’s got something to prove.”
It’s really as simple as that. They might be very intrigued by Justin Fields and his NFL future, whether that’s in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, but right now the Steelers are all in on Wilson as the starting quarterback. They believe they can compete for a Super Bowl with a great defense, a high-end running game and now a veteran quarterback on a young offense who should be able to operate well under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
That’s it, period.
Everything else is outside noise with no ground to stand on.
