The Pittsburgh Steelers are all systems go with Russell Wilson in 2024, but is his body? That’s what Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders. The Steelers announced him as the starter five days ago despite a calf injury limiting his training camp.
“He’s still pretty mobile. Does the calf injury limit him in that respect?”, Fittipaldo wondered about Wilson recently on 93.7 The Fan. “Can they still roll him out? Can he still escape the pocket and get two yards on 3rd and 1? Those are things we’re gonna have to see early in the season”.
The Steelers held Wilson out of the first preseason game following his injury suffered during the camp-opening conditioning test. He played five drives in the second game, but from a limited menu. In the third game, he led just one drive, throwing two passes. That was more about protecting him than testing him, though.
While Russell Wilson was never Mike Vick, he could run around as needed in his day. In his first six seasons, he rushed for 3,275 yards with 16 touchdowns. Even last year, in 15 games, he rushed for 341 yards with three scores and 38 first downs. But he didn’t have a bum calf then—and he also didn’t have an elite mobile quarterback behind him.
“The other aspect is, how does Justin Fields factor into some of those short-yardage, goal-to-go situations”, Fittipaldo asked. “Is Justin Fields gonna be a part of that or are they gonna trust Russell Wilson in all phases of the offense?”.
At 35 years old, Russell Wilson is no longer the spry youngster, but the Steelers believe he can still move. Not everybody agrees with that, though, and the Steelers will soon learn more. He is more than a month removed from that calf injury, so one hopes he is clear of lingering issues.
Still, the Justin Fields conversation is an interesting wrinkle. We have discussed the possibility of a special package for Russell Wilson’s backup for months, and the Steelers are open to exploring that, as Mike Tomlin admitted recently.
But that doesn’t mean the Steelers don’t believe Wilson can move, nor does it mean his calf is limiting him. Arthur Smith did say he limited his plays for Wilson in the second preseason game a couple weeks ago. But that was a couple weeks ago, and he played another game since then—even if not much.
Calf injuries can linger, as the Cincinnati Bengals learned with Joe Burrow last year. To be honest, we haven’t seen enough of Russell Wilson to really know if we can anticipate any lingering side effects. He seemed on the whole fine, but we have a limited sample size.
Even still, I don’t share Fittipaldo’s concern or curiosity on this matter. As far as I know, Russell Wilson is perfectly fine and ready to go. I have no reason to think otherwise, but maybe the Falcons will supply us with one reason on Sunday. The funny thing is, I’m not sure anybody outside the team even knows which calf he injured. If we don’t even know which calf is the problem, what is the worry?
