What can go wrong, will go wrong. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, that means that Russell Wilson’s calf injury, which seemed healed, is bothering him again. It’s unclear what his status will be for the first game of the year, but having your aging quarterback dealing with an injury before the season starts is never a good thing. However, former NFL running back LeSean McCoy believes the Steelers could still win even with Wilson injured.
“My thing with Russ is, you play for the Steelers,” McCoy said Friday on FS1’s new show, The Facility,. “I watched quarterbacks that were super healthy and give no production for the Steelers, and they still find ways to win. If Russ is good enough to play, maybe he’s not 100% healthy, maybe he’s like 70%, that is still good enough to win games for the Steelers.”
McCoy is correct that the Steelers had multiple healthy quarterbacks last year who didn’t make many positive contributions. Kenny Pickett struggled before actually getting hurt. Mitch Trubisky couldn’t buy a win for the Steelers. Mason Rudolph looked the best, and even then, he was still below-average.
The main focus here shouldn’t be whether the Steelers can win with Wilson injured. It should be whether he would aggravate the injury further, causing him to miss more time than if he would have just sat this game out.
The Atlanta Falcons are a good team, and starting 2024 with a win would be nice, but it’s a long season. Losing your starting quarterback for a huge chunk of time would probably hurt more than losing this game.
There will probably be more answers soon as to what Wilson’s status will be for Sunday, but for now, it’s concerning. Wilson will probably want to play, but hopefully the team takes a cautious approach to this situation. That calf injury could become a serious problem quickly. The Steelers have exercised caution with Wilson so far, so it’s likely they will continue to do so. This definitely isn’t the way the Steelers wanted to open the season though.
