The NFL is a harsh league, and Russell Wilson is getting a dose of that right now as his Week 1 status is up in the air with a calf injury. He hasn’t been officially ruled out yet, but that hasn’t stopped members of the national media from coming out of the woodwork to state their support for his backup, Justin Fields.
Jason La Canfora posted some thoughts on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback situation via the Washington Post this afternoon, and included some thoughts from anonymous scouts around the league.
“Based on what trusted evaluators who watched Wilson closely have told me, I would project Fields to see an awful lot of the field this season,” La Canfora wrote via The Washington Post. “In fact, I would guess that by the end of the season he will have played more snaps than Wilson.”
That is quite the claim, but seems increasingly likely as Wilson deals with a calf injury to the same calf that was bothering him at the beginning of training camp over a month ago. At 35 years old, that is obviously a growing concern.
Wilson traveled with the team to Atlanta, so his chances remain alive for now to quiet all of this extra noise. But boy, is it getting noisy.
“I think Wilson is done,” said one anonymous scout via La Canfora. “It’s over as a starter. He is a backup quarterback. Mike [Tomlin] will get there. Give it a few weeks.”
There are a few ways that tomorrow’s Week 1 game can play out. If Wilson starts, he can quiet the noise and put up a solid performance. Conversely, he could play too soon and perform poorly. He could even worsen his injury in the process. Those would have two vastly different outcomes.
On the other hand, Wilson could sit and rest. If Fields plays well, he could start to make a case that he should have been the starting quarterback all along. If he struggles, then Wilson will be on the sidelines, getting healthy, and likely to remain the starter for several more weeks, or even the whole season.
If Fields does end up playing more snaps than Wilson, it will almost certainly trigger the conditional portion of his trade. The Steelers would give up their fourth-round pick in the upcoming draft instead of the sixth that it would otherwise be. That is a small price to pay for a franchise quarterback, but Fields simply playing 51-percent or more of the snaps doesn’t necessarily mean he is the future franchise quarterback.
Justin Fields would have to go out there and show that he is more than the 10 wins that he has mustered as a starter over 38 starts. He has already had a lot of chances to prove himself in this league, and it hasn’t gone well. That being said, he is 10 years younger than Wilson and clearly has more upside for the Steelers.
However, the Steelers’ coaching staff always remain focused on the current season. They wouldn’t be making decisions of this caliber based on the potential for future gains. We will see which of the scenarios I listed plays out tomorrow. It could have lasting ripple effects on the Steelers in 2024 and beyond.
