When the Pittsburgh Steelers came out onto the field for their first padded practice of training camp, it looked like QB Russell Wilson would make his long-awaited camp debut. He was wearing his pads and helmet, and he even began work in individual sessions and the stretch line. But once practice progressed, it became clear that he was being eased back into the fold. He sat out of most of the team sessions other than a couple handoffs near the end of practice. He did participate in 7-on-7 at the end of the day and working with the first-team offense, he completed all six of his attempts.
There was some speculation that the weather could have played a factor in his limited work, as to not aggravate his calf injury. But according to Wilson, the 7-on-7 work was the plan all along.
“I feel good, getting better every day. The training staff’s doing a tremendous job and we’re working really hard every morning,” Wilson said after practice in a video posted by The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo on X. “It’s just good to be back out here again with the guys putting the helmet on…I’m watching everything if I’m not in there.
“But then also getting the reps today was really good for me just to be able to do seven on seven and be in the mix. That was the plan the whole time. And just to be able to get as many reps in 7-in-7 as I could, and that was really good stuff today.”
Wilson tweaked his calf during the conditioning test last Wednesday. Reports indicate that it is not a major concern, but that coach Mike Tomlin just wanted to play things safe. Wilson told the media last week that if there were a game he would have been playing, to give a sense of how minor the injury might be.
He has slowly increased his level of participation in each of the five practices so far, so we can probably expect that trend to continue, so long as his calf responded well to additional work today. Wilson vowed, “I will be ready to go when it’s time.”
