Justin Fields has been the story of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp as a result of Russell Wilson’s untimely calf injury the day before practices began. Things started off a little shaky, but Field’s performance has been trending in the right direction over the course of the first 10 practices. Wilson may have had pole position entering camp, but it’s difficult to maintain a lead when you can’t even practice. Even harder when your primary competition is performing well.
Sports Illustrated’s NFL insider, Albert Breer, listed off 10 things that he has heard throughout his tour of various training camps, and had a blurb on the QB competition in Pittsburgh.
“I wouldn’t count Justin Fields out of becoming the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers quite yet,” Breer wrote via The MMQB. “Fields has played well, and new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has a really long history of coaching effectively around the blind spots of physically gifted quarterbacks. So the longer Russell Wilson’s injury woes linger, the wider the door opens for Fields, who’s a strong program-personality fit for the Steelers, to eventually become the guy.”
There is no way of knowing for sure, but Wilson told the media that he would be practicing if it were up to him. He also stated that he would be playing in a game if there were one. Tomlin has been holding him out to prevent a small issue from becoming a large one. The latest report indicates that Wilson could return as soon as this week after Monday’s day off from practice.
So did Fields do enough in the 10 practices of running with the first-team offense to convince the Steelers’ decision makers to make it a true and open competition?
Mike Tomlin told Kay Adams in an interview over the weekend that both quarterbacks will get an opportunity to state their case and called it a competition, but he also reiterated pole position for Wilson at the start of camp after giving him nearly all of the first-team reps throughout the spring.
That being said, Fields’ performance has been good enough to win a small handful of the practices against the starting defense in seven shots and 11-on-11 sessions. The Steelers defense is expected to be among the league’s best this season, so that is no small feat. Especially after the defense dominated the first couple days of training camp practice.
It will be very interesting to see how the first-team reps are divided up once Wilson returns. The first preseason game is just days away on Friday. Out of an abundance of caution, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wilson plays very little in that game even if he is cleared early in the week. That sets the stage for Fields to impress for a few drives with the starters. If his practice performance translates to an exhibition game against live opponents, then the competition could get more interesting in Pittsburgh.
