The quarterback competition talk has been raging on since March when the Pittsburgh Steelers added both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields during the first week of the new league year. Especially once Wilson was forced to miss most of camp with a calf injury, many thought Fields had a legitimate chance to pass him despite the pole position given.
Those talks quieted ever so slightly once head coach Mike Tomlin announced Wilson as the Week 1 starter. Yet here we are barely over a week later and Wilson was limited at practice by the same calf that he injured in July. Predictably, this has renewed the focus on Fields and his chances of being the Steelers’ starter Sunday in Atlanta — and perhaps beyond.
“If Russell doesn’t play, this is the best opportunity Justin Fields is ever going to have in his career,” NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky said on ESPN’s Get Up this morning. “It’s the opportunity that many of us have been clamoring for. It’s, I think, the best opportunity for Pittsburgh to be a competitive football team this year. It’s not the preseason, it’s when it matters now, and Justin’s finally got a team around him that can give him the opportunity.
“It’s not gonna be perfect. Arthur Smith has the chance to kind of reinvent this offense with the quarterback-designed run, a little bit like we saw with Lamar Jackson.”
Until the Steelers’ next practice report, there is obviously some cause for concern. Dan Graziano clarified this morning that the calf tightness must have popped up at some point during practice because Wilson was out there for warmups and individual drills before watching the rest of practice with a trainer on the sideline.
Fields got more opportunities throughout the offseason than many anticipated. He got all of the first-team reps over the first two-plus weeks of training camp, and even got to start the opening preseason game. The only issue is, he didn’t exactly perform well in the preseason.
His lone preseason start featured two botched snaps. The blame is up for debate on those, but he shares at least some responsibility. He led three drives in that game and came up empty with zero points. In total, he led 11 drives in the preseason, many against backup defenses, and produced just one touchdown drive.
In total, Fields completed 19 of his 27 pass attempts for 199 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He added another 48 yards on 13 rush attempts. Wilson didn’t exactly upstage him with his preseason opportunities, but he entered with pole position, and Fields did nothing to change that.
Albert Breer reported earlier in the week that there were people inside the Steelers’ organization pushing for Fields to win the starting job. They will get their wish in Week 1 if Wilson can’t go. But will the Steelers be a better team for it? That remains to be seen. This whole conversation could be a moot point if Wilson is a full participant at practice later today, which is still a possibility.
