As Russell Wilson awaits, Justin Fields became the Pittsburgh Steelers’ fourth different starting quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Of the four, he is the first who far has only started due to injury. Should Fields continue to start even when Fields is healthy? Roethlisberger doesn’t think so.
“If [Russell Wilson] is healthy, … I think it goes back to Russ”, Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast. “Russ is your starter. Now, if you’re telling me they’ve won four or five games and then now Russ is healthy, maybe you kind of pause. But your plan is still nothing different. Russ is your starter”.
The Steelers signed Russell Wilson as a street free agent after the Denver Broncos unceremoniously dumped him. Depending on whom you ask, they either brought him in the start or to compete with Kenny Pickett. Pickett likely believed it was the latter, so he asked for a trade and got it. It was only then that the Steelers traded for Justin Fields, and at a discount.
Everyone at this point knows who Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are. Wilson is a Super Bowl champion and a borderline Hall of Famer while Fields has insane talent. Wilson is near the end of his career from a physical standpoint while Fields’ future is in question. Succeeding in Pittsburgh would do wonders in that regard for Fields. But did he do enough on Sunday to convince anybody that he is improved from his first three NFL seasons?
“To be honest, even if Fields would’ve went out and done what I talked about and put up a monster game, there’d be a lot of fans be like, ‘Whoa, don’t change that out’”, Roethlisberger said about turning to Wilson once healthy. “But you don’t know what Russ is gonna bring yet either. And he’s the guy. He was named the starter for a reason. So I don’t think Justin did anything to lose the job or to keep it if Russ was ready to go”.
Wilson worked with the first-team offense throughout spring practices over Fields. It was only his calf injury at the start of training camp that forced the dynamics to change. Suddenly, the Steelers had the opportunity to take a long look at Fields. They may not have changed their decision, but I’m sure it piqued their interest.
We will have to see this week if there is even a discussion about who will start. The Steelers have to determine if Russell Wilson is good enough on that calf to sit Justin Fields. If they are concerned that Wilson could aggravate the injury and have a setback, they will stick with Fields.
It’s only at that point that you can even have the discussion—but again, that assumes there is a discussion. How much would the Steelers have to see from Fields to sit a healthy Wilson? I think some people forget that the Steelers have a much higher opinion of Wilson than many on the outside. And they have seen a lot more of Wilson this offseason than we have, given the timing of his injury.
