The Pittsburgh Steelers are hosting their first joint practice since 2016 with the Buffalo Bills today. Yesterday was an unpadded practice in preparation for what should be a pretty physical session today against another team. There is no confirmation from Mike Tomlin yet on the quarterback situation for the second preseason game. But if today is any indication, Wilson appears on track to start. He got the first-team reps against the Bills in the seven shots drill to open practice, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor on X.
After missing most of the first two weeks of training camp and slowly ramping up his activities, Wilson was much more active with the first-team offense over the last few practices at Saint Vincent College. He didn’t play in the preseason opener as he had just started ramping back up into full participation, but it seems likely at this point that he will be the first quarterback on the field against the Bills on Saturday evening.
Today’s practice is Wilson’s first time operating the Steelers’ offense against another team. He is a veteran of the NFL and has seen it all over his 12-year career, but it is still good to test him within Arthur Smith’s offense against some less familiar schemes.
The Steelers’ offense won in the seven-shots drill against the Bills. Beat reporters seem to disagree on the actual score, but it seems like the Steelers won either 5-2 or 4-3. Wilson threw a pair of touchdowns with one to George Pickens and one to Dez Fitzpatrick, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Brian Batko on X.
Once they moved into the 11-on-11 team period, Fields took all of the first-team reps.
Fields had been getting almost all of the first-team reps throughout training camp until the last few practices when Wilson was healthy. He performed much better than expected and opened some eyes in the process. Wilson told Sal Paolantonio on ESPN’s NFL Live yesterday that being the starter is really important to him.
He has his work cut out for him to prove that he was deserving of the pole position that was given to him, but the current division of labor seems to be in line with what Tomlin has been preaching about the quarterback competition since March. It is Wilson’s job to lose, and we are finally getting to see him in live team sessions. If he does play tomorrow night against the Bills for a drive or two, his first order of business will be to lead a touchdown drive. That is something Fields was unable to do in three attempts last Friday.
