The Pittsburgh Steelers declared Russell Wilson their starter and captain, but Justin Fields started the season opener. He played and he won but did he do enough to Wally Pipp Mr. Unlimited? Certainly not—not in the eyes of Chris Hoke, who attempts to answer the question through Mike Tomlin’s eyes. During the KDKA Extra Point show after the Steelers’ 18-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons, he was emphatic in his belief of who will start next Sunday.
“Russell Wilson, no question about it. There’s no question about it in my mind”, Hoke said, about the Steelers’ starter. “Listen, these are good numbers [from Fields], 17 for 23, 156 yards. But there was a lot of dinking and dunking, and I don’t know if there was a lot of confidence.
“You’re going to see Russell Wilson come in because Coach [Mike] Tomlin likes veteran quarterbacks. Russell Wilson’s the guy Coach Tomlin wants to see on the field. He’s a guy who can stretch the field and open up this offense and open up the running game even more. If Russell Wilson can throw the ball in the middle of the field, where we didn’t see it today, and the outside, it will open up that run game”.
The Steelers finished the game with 270 net yards of offense, including 133 passing and 137 running. But the Steelers carried the ball 41 times in all, averaging 3.3 yards. Five runs for loss (a total of minus-16 yards) certainly didn’t help. But would the defenses the Steelers face respect Russell Wilson’s play-action threat more than Justin Fields’?
Fields did make some fine throws, particularly when targeting George Pickens. The third-year receiver finished the game with six catches on seven targets for 85 yards with a long of 40. But Russell Wilson also showed a connection with Pickens, both in training camp and the preseason. There’s no reason to believe switching from Wilson to Fields would limit the receiver.
While the Steelers reportedly knew on Friday that Fields would start, that was only due to Wilson’s calf tightness. And they apparently didn’t tell Fields this in advance. Even though he didn’t start, the Steelers still dressed Wilson as the emergency third quarterback.
And let’s not forget, we are talking about an 18-point performance, 0-for-2 in the red zone. The Steelers started with good field position several times, but they couldn’t get into the end zone. Not all of that was on Fields, but could the offense run more smoothly with Wilson?
The Steelers wouldn’t have named Wilson the starter if they didn’t believe that. And while they showed on Sunday that they can win with Fields, they didn’t do so with any sort of miraculous effort. Barring some significant turn of events, as long as Russell Wilson is healthy, I think Hoke is right that he will be starting next week against his former team, the Denver Broncos.
