Mike Tomlin was very non-committal about Russell Wilson’s possible return during his Tuesday press conference ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 2 game against the Denver Broncos.
After missing Week 1 due to a reaggravation of his calf injury suffered at the start of training camp, the Steelers appear to be proceeding cautiously. Wilson reportedly told the Steelers that he was fine to play on Sunday, but the team decision was to hold him out.
It’s the same approach they took with the initial injury in training camp. Tomlin wanted to prevent a small issue from becoming a large one. Even with the cautious approach and the extra rest, Wilson reaggravated it 43 days later. That shows how tricky soft-tissue injuries can be, especially at 35.
NFL insider Judy Battista discussed Tomlin’s press conference during NFL Network’s The Insiders this evening.
“As we’ve been saying all along, they are handling Russell Wilson very carefully, very conservatively,” Battista said. “They are not going to rush, and frankly, there’s not really a need to push him back onto the field right now because Justin Fields was fine…They can win games like that. They can certainly win a game against the Denver Broncos like that. And then we will see when they need more dynamic quarterback play if they think it is Justin Fields who can deliver it or Russell Wilson.”
It would be interesting to see Tomlin’s approach if the schedule was flipped and they had that difficult eight-game gauntlet at the start of the season instead of the end. However, that is likely why they are approaching things the way they are. Division play is still months away, and the “easier” part of their schedule is now.
For what it’s worth, Tomlin was asked if Wilson would play if healthy, and he dodged the question.
Fields wasn’t fantastic, but he executed their game plan pretty well. He didn’t turn the ball over, he extended drives with his legs, and he excelled with the few deep shots they took on offense.
You can bet that Wilson is going to bug Tomlin and the training staff this week. Since the schedule was announced, everybody has been hyping up Wilson’s return to Denver to play the Broncos all offseason. He has plenty of reasons to want to stick it to Sean Payton and the organization, even if he wouldn’t say it publicly.
As Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference on the Steelers’ YouTube page, “I am unmoved by some of those narratives, to be quite honest with you.”
The smart decision is to take things slowly with Wilson. If he were to suffer a significant setback, they would be left without a choice. If Fields struggles, he is all you have other than Kyle Allen. The best thing for the team is to give Wilson ample time to recover, even if that means missing out on a fun revenge game.
