Russell Wilson had his helmet and pads on for the first padded practice but remained sidelined for the majority of the day, per Alex Kozora on X. He did more work during the individual portion of practice than previously and went through the stretch line for the first time. Eventually, he got two team session reps in towards the end of practice, but they were just handoffs, and he sat out the majority of the team sessions earlier in the day.
Here are some photos taken of Wilson in full gear by Tim Rice, our photographer on-site at camp.
After warmups and the stretch line, Wilson did not participate in the first seven shots drill of the day. With the weather, they might be playing things safe while they continue to ease him back into full participation. Justin Fields took the majority of the first-team reps throughout practice.
When the team moved into 7-on-7 drills, Wilson was out there with the first-team offense, per TribLive’s Joe Rutter on X.
He had a nice performance in 7-on-7, completing all of his six attempts including a 25-yard connection with TE Connor Heyward, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor on X.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers opened up the first day of practice at training camp, Russell Wilson was sporting a ball cap and shorts. It quickly became apparent that he would not be practicing on the first day. We later learned via Mike Tomlin that he was dealing with calf tightness, and they made the call early in the morning on the first day of practice to let him rest. Justin Fields made the most of his opportunity to run with the first-team offense, and that setup continued for the first four days of practice as Wilson sat out.
His injury was suffered during the conditioning test last Wednesday while pushing a weighted sled. It was very minor, and Wilson said he would have played in a game if there was one, but Tomlin wanted to prevent a minor issue from becoming a major one.
He has slowly ramped up his level of involvement at each practice with some light work during warmups and individual drills. He even got in an after-hours session with teammates Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris on Friday, so it is no surprise that he is participating more after the day off.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Gerry Dulac reported on Sunday evening that Wilson and the Steelers were “not concerned at all” about the calf injury, and Tomlin told the media after practice that he would likely be increasing his participation, including work in the team sessions, on Tuesday when practice resumed.
“[Russell Wilson] worked partially today, and expect him to get going a bit as we come off this off-day,” Tomlin said in a video posted on the team website.
The key phrase there, as it turns out, was “a bit.” He has been adding more work to each camp practice so far, so we can probably expect to see even more from him when they begin practice on Wednesday.
