After dealing with a calf injury through the early portion of training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, veteran Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson believes he’s now “ahead of schedule” in his buildup to the regular season.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday following the final day of training camp for the Steelers, Wilson — who saw a lot of QB1 reps in the final practice — stated that he’s feeling good and feels prepared for the start of the season despite the limited workload early on in training camp.
“I’ve been working every single day. Even the days I was a little bit lighter in team, I was just getting all the fundamental work, and then I obviously over the past two weeks, really been building up a lot more reps and the team drills and everything else,” Wilson said of how he’s feeling, according to video via the Tribune-Review’s Chris Adamski on Twitter. “That’s been great. I’ve been full for the past several days and everything else.
“So feel really good. I’m ahead of schedule.”
Russell Wilson previously injured himself in the conditioning test to open training camp, tweaking his calf while pushing a sled in the team portion of the test. That kept him out of practice the first four days, and then left him limited in the first few padded practices of training camp.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin previously stated that he was intentionally slowing Russell Wilson’s recovery progress to ensure that they took their time and let it heal fully. That kept Wilson out of the preseason opener against the Texans, but in recent days, the veteran has been full-go in training camp and has put together some solid days of camp, closing with a bang on Wednesday.
It remains to be seen if he’ll play in Saturday’s preseason opener against the Buffalo Bills, which is a decision that Tomlin should be announcing in the coming days. There is the possibility that Wilson gets a bunch of work in the joint practice with the Bills on Thursday at Acrisure Stadium, which is closed to the public, which could theoretically keep him from playing in Saturday’s second preseason game.
But Tomlin did state after the Texans game that Wilson would be available for the matchup against the Bills.
It’s been a long, sometimes strange training camp for Russell Wilson and the Steelers, but right now, the veteran quarterback feels great, appears to be in a groove, and believes he’s ahead of schedule for the start of the season, whatever that means for him.
That’s positive, any way you try and slice it.
