In the days following the initial injury to his calf during a conditioning test while pushing a sled the night before the start of training camp, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson and even head coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the setback, stating that they were just being cautious and felt they had a lot of time to let it heal without rushing the veteran quarterback back onto the field.
Wilson sat out the first four practices of camp and then was slowly eased back into the fold, eventually playing in the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, making his Steelers’ debut.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith praised Wilson for being on the field then, getting valuable reps in, which ultimately helped lead to Wilson being named the starting quarterback for the Steelers. But now, after having missed the first three games of the season and on track to miss the fourth week as well, there is some belief that Wilson playing in the preseason and practicing so quickly after the injury only made it worse.
At least, that’s what ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler is reporting. In a piece for ESPN.com that published Wednesday, Fowler stated that he asked around regarding the injury to Wilson and heard that the calf injury is “no joke” and that Wilson practicing and playing through it “seemed to make it worse.”
“Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, typically among the league leaders in honesty from the podium, said there’s no reason to declare [Justin] Fields the starter beyond Week 4 because Russell Wilson is not healthy,” Fowler said of the Steelers’ QB situation. “This aligns with what I’ve heard throughout that Wilson’s calf injury is no joke, and playing/practicing in the preseason seemed to make it worse.
“He’s simply not moving at a high clip at this point.”
Wilson certainly didn’t look like he was moving around all that well during the preseason as he was rather limited overall against the Bills, though he was behind a porous offensive line. Then, he played just five snaps against the Detroit Lions in the preseason finale and exited the game after leading a scoring drive.
At that point, things seemed to be fine, but Wilson tweaked the calf again and has missed the first three weeks of the season. When he’s practice, he’s been a limited participant, and videos surfacing on social media from practice over the last few weeks have shown Wilson to be rather limited and not moving all that well.
Though Tomlin left the light on for Wilson this week, and seems keen on giving the veteran quarterback with the Hall of Fame resume a chance to battle back and potentially see the field, it seems like this calf issue might linger throughout the season. It wasn’t exactly handled well in hindsight by the training staff, not only asking Wilson to push a sled in a conditioning test but then allowing him to get back into action the way that he did and in the setting he did.
It’s a disappointing outcome so far, to be sure. Wilson potentially making his calf injury worse opened the door for Justin Fields. In turn, it might have started to close the door on Wilson’s potential opportunity. That’s tough.
