The Pittsburgh Steelers are always worried about the present. Mike Tomlin has talked about him owing the current team his undivided attention, and trying to make decisions as the head coach that are geared toward the future would be doing his current group a disservice. That is why Russell Wilson always made the most sense to be the Steelers’ starting quarterback.
It is the front office’s job to look ahead and have a loose plan for how the team should be built with one eye on the future. That might be why we have heard from Dianna Russini, Albert Breer, and others that there are people within the organization who were pushing for Justin Fields to start. Being a decade younger than Wilson, his emergence as a long-term option would make the future of the team a lot clearer.
“What it actually did, is it paved the way for Mike Tomlin to make a decision without making a decision,” ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said on Get Up this morning about the quarterback dilemma in Pittsburgh. “It’s almost the best of all possible scenarios.”
During his Tuesday press conference, Tomlin said they are preparing as if Fields is the starting quarterback for Week 2. He got the team a win in Week 1, and although he didn’t lead any touchdown drives, he executed the game plan well with clean football, no turnovers, and some well-timed shots down field.
If the Steelers can continue to get a look at Fields while the team is still winning, without sacrificing anything in the short-term, that could be the perfect situation in Pittsburgh.
Neither Wilson nor Fields are under contract beyond the 2024 season. There are a number of ways this could play out. If Wilson has a great year, he could make himself too expensive for the team to be comfortable with a long-term extension at his age. There was a possible reality in which Wilson was healthy the whole season, which would have made evaluating Fields as a long-term option a lot more difficult.
This will be his first full week of practice preparing as the starter. That allows Arthur Smith more time to formulate a game plan than a week ago. Hopefully that plan involves more shots in the middle of the field, where Fields did not throw a single time in Week 1.
If he shows progress over his Week 1 performance, then that’s a lot of great data for Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and the other Steelers decision makers to base their future plans on.
