Russell Wilson or Justin Fields has been the debate of sports talk shows this summer ever since both joined the Pittsburgh Steelers and with training camp less than a week away, it’s not going away. Despite the fact that it seems clear that Russell Wilson will be Pittsburgh’s starter, there’s always a need to discuss who would be the best fit for Pittsburgh, which is what the panel of analysts on ESPN’s Get Up! did on Friday. They were asked which quarterback they’d rather face as a defense, and former NFL cornerback Dominique Foxworth gave an interesting answer that he’d rather face Fields and that the Steelers need someone who can consistently take care of the ball like Wilson.
“I’d rather them put Justin Fields out there, honestly. There is an inconsistency to his play,” Foxworth said. “Given what the Steelers have been the past couple seasons, I don’t think they’re interested in a roller coaster. They want somebody who is gonna consistently take care of the ball. And that has been Russell [Wilson] for most of his career.”
For the Steelers, with their offense looking to rely on their ground game and be a tough football team, winning the time-of-possession battle is going to be important. Keep the opposing defense on the field, keep your own defense off the field, run the ball, and work with play-action to move down the field. Not turning the ball over is paramount to making that happen, and Wilson is better at reducing turnovers right now than Fields.
Fields is still young, but he has essentially three years of habits from his time in Chicago that he’ll have to change to help him develop into a more consistent player. As it stands now, he’s still a capable starter, but Pittsburgh has an option in Wilson that’s better for where they are as a team right now. That’s why he’s in pole position to start heading into training camp.
The hope for Fields should still be that he will develop into a long-term quarterback option for the Steelers, but that might not begin with him starting this season. Wilson has shown the ability to succeed with a strong defense and a strong run game, and his Super Bowl pedigree makes it hard to turn away from him. Unless he gets hurt or really, really struggles in training camp and the preseason, it would be a surprise if anyone but Wilson was under center for Week 1.
