The Pittsburgh Steelers have been without their intended starting quarterback, Russell Wilson, for the first three weeks of the season, with Justin Fields scheduled to start his third-straight game. According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac on the Countdown to Kickoff on Steelers Audio Network via 102.5 WDVE Radio, Russell Wilson is scheduled to resume practicing this upcoming week ahead of their Week 4 game against the Indianapolis Colts.
“Russell Wilson is scheduled to resume practice this week. Now we’ll wait and see where that leads,” Dulac said. “…The decision is going to be two-pronged. Part of it will be, okay, let’s see if this offense can maybe generate some more points. Obviously, they haven’t in the first two games [with] just one touchdown. But also, will Mike Tomlin—if the Steelers win—will he change from the hot hand? I’m not so sure that he will. I don’t know that.
“Russell Wilson is his quarterback. That’s why he was brought in. He was brought in for late in the season and hopefully in the postseason and hopefully to win a game, but we shall see next week, depending on what happens today perhaps.”
Dulac has been pretty firmly on the side of Wilson getting his job back once he is healthy, but I don’t think anybody expected Fields to have an opportunity to muster a 3-0 start to the season. He had won just 10 of his 38 starts with the Chicago Bears over the first three seasons of his career.
Fields hasn’t necessarily been the reason they’ve won, but he has also done nothing to hurt the team, with zero turnovers and only four sacks in two weeks. However, it is not given that the Steelers will advance to 3-0 going up against the No. 1 scoring defense in the league and a team that has the second-best rushing attack.
Wilson reaggravated his calf injury the Thursday before Week 1, just a week after being named the starter. Jay Glazer said that an MRI revealed a strain for Wilson, so the Steelers have been playing it safe to make sure the small but growing issue doesn’t end his season. It would be quite the monumental shift for the Steelers to stick with Fields over Wilson, but it could be a great development if the 25-year-old Fields is finally putting it together.
He has a chance to be the future of the team, but that could partially hinge on his performance against the Chargers in a little over an hour from now.
