Coming into the start of the training camp, the belief was that there would be no true quarterback competition between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields for the starting job of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
However, Wilson’s calf injury suffered in a conditioning test while pushing a sled has seemingly opened the door to a competition, especially as Fields has stepped into the void and seized upon his opportunity.
Some certainly still feel that even with Wilson’s injury that had him miss the first four practices of training camp and then has kept him limited over the last week that the former Super Bowl-winning QB will still be the Week 1 starter for the Steelers. But the tune is seemingly starting to change somewhat, especially as Fields generates more and more buzz, putting the Steelers’ QB situation back in the forefront of the NFL fodder in the media landscape.
For ESPN’s Kevin Clark, this QB situation in Pittsburgh is being mischaracterized as some big-time quarterback competition. Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up! Monday morning, Clark downplayed the situation stating it’s not a glamorous battle because neither quarterback is very good.
“We’re confusing this with being a glamorous quarterback competition. It’s not. This is a team trying to paper over a first round mistake in Kenny Pickett and they’re scrambling,” Clark said of the Steelers’ QB situation, according to video via ESPN. “These are two quarterbacks that the league did not want. They told us they did not want them. These Steelers said, ‘okay.'”
It might not be the most glamorous QB battle in the NFL, if we even want to call it a battle, but Clark stated that nobody in the league wanted either quarterback is straight-up hyperbole.
Prior to even visiting the Steelers and ultimately signing with Pittsburgh, Wilson had a meeting with the New York Giants and had a meeting lined up with the Las Vegas Raiders after the Denver Broncos cut him loose and incurred an $85 million dead cap charge across two seasons.
As for Fields, the Bears and GM Ryan Poles wanted to do right by Fields and trade him to a good situation, which led to Poles reportedly turning down better offers to send Fields to Pittsburgh where he wanted to be.
Seems like teams certainly wanted Fields, even if the trade return for Chicago wasn’t very good with it being a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft from Pittsburgh.
Yes, neither quarterback has been all that good recently, with many in the media souring on them, and yes the Steelers are trying to fix a first-round mistake that was Kenny Pickett, but that doesn’t make this a bad quarterback situation and potential battle at Saint Vincent College.
Wilson is a future Hall of Fame quarterback who had some good moments last year in Denver and now lands with a head coach he appears to mesh well with after Sean Payton wanted nothing to do with him in Denver and was quite toxic. Fields has all the talent in the world and the Steelers were high on him in the 2021 NFL Draft but ultimately couldn’t land him.
We’ll see what happens under center for the Steelers once Wilson returns to a full practice, but right now it does appear to be somewhat of a competition thanks to Fields’ start to training camp.
“…A lot of people still agree with Mike Tomlin’s summer assertion that Russell Wilson is in the pole position. But as Dan Graziano and others have reported, this is a real competition,” Clark added. “I think there were some Steelers beat writers who said, ‘no, no, no, Russell Wilson has this locked up in May and June.’ And not only did Russell Wilson’s injury kind of leave the door open for Fields, but Fields has been okay.
“Both of them have just been okay in training camp, and this has become kind of a competition. …I think there’s a legitimate role for both quarterbacks in this offense, because again, you’re just trying anything. This quarterback competition is not good.”
Well, we now know where Clark stands on Wilson and Fields. For a guy that just last week was lamenting about the conversation regarding clips from training camp and people overreacting to them, a guy who hasn’t been at camp once yet having a take on how the Steelers QBs have performed seems quite rich.
It might not be glamorous, but the Steelers don’t want it to be. They just want both to fit into the system and provide stability in 2024. It’s not asking much.
