Several insiders of the Pittsburgh Steelers have chimed in on how the quarterback competition has shaken out so far during spring practices with OTAs and minicamp taking place over the last month. Russell Wilson opened up the offseason with “pole position” to start, and there hasn’t been a major shift in that line of thinking after spring practices. If anything, the gap between Wilson and Fields has seemed to widen with reports of Fields’ inaccuracy and inconsistent play.
However true that may be, it is important to remember that the spring practices is more or less like seven-on-seven football, with no contact and routes often being run on air or with very loose coverage as to not break the league’s no-contact rules prior to training camp. There was no doubt that Wilson is the better pure passer, so it is no big surprise that he looked better during that portion of the offseason.
The real competition will begin during training camp when the pads come on.
“The Steelers would tell you they don’t have their data yet. They haven’t been to training camp yet. They haven’t put the pads on yet,” Dan Graziano said on Friday’s episode of Get Up on ESPN. “Right now, Russell Wilson’s probably the more accurate passer and probably processes faster than Justin Fields. He’s been in the league a lot longer. But once they get to camp and Justin Fields can do the things he could do and run around a little bit, he’ll be able to do some things Russell can’t and that just hasn’t shown up yet. So I think it’s a true competition.”
The statistics certainly confirm Graziano’s assertion that Wilson is the more accurate passer at the moment. There is really no comparison between their bodies of work. Fields has improved in each of his three seasons, but his best season would easily be Wilson’s worst as a passer. While Wilson certainly can move around and extend plays with his legs, he does not pose the rushing threat that Fields does.
Fields has the second-most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single season in league history with 1,143 in 2022. That is more rushing yards than his other two seasons combined, but he still has a career average of 6.2 yards per attempt. The NFL has been dominated by passing offenses over the last decade-plus, but Mike Tomlin has talked about the cyclical nature of the NFL in the past. They drafted offensive linemen and very clearly wish to be a run-first offense. Tomlin even said they want to roll people on offense as one of the most physical in the league.
Fields’ running abilities once the pads come on could be tempting enough to give the QB competition a new life after many have already written off his chances. In an ideal world, Fields does enough to win the QB battle because he offers a much longer future in the NFL than Wilson does. I don’t necessarily think it will play out that way, but several NFL insiders—including Graziano—still see it as a competition.
