Former NFL head coach Bill Belichick is the latest to offer his take on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback situation. While he didn’t pound the gavel for Justin Fields or Russell Wilson, he acknowledged that Wilson could be in a tough spot trying to enter the lineup on the fly.
“Russell’s a veteran quarterback and that guy knows how to play,” Belichick said on The Coach podcast that was recorded before Mike Tomlin’s Tuesday presser. “But he just hasn’t had the timing and the live snaps because he certainly didn’t get them in preseason. So it’s a tough task to come in there at this point in the season with really no reps.”
A calf injury has hampered Wilson since late July. He first strained his calf during the team’s training camp conditioning test and was limited for most of its time in Latrobe. It wasn’t until the final few days of practice that he fully participated in 11-on-11 sessions, and he missed the preseason opener. Cleared for the second preseason game, he was on the field for five drives, but the offense struggled to move the ball. He also started the finale and led a quick-scoring drive before being rested for the rest of the game.
Wilson was in line to start the regular-season opener but aggravated his calf three days before taking on the Atlanta Falcons. He rehabbed the first five weeks, getting in limited practice reps, before returning full last week as the No. 2 QB during the week and on gameday.
To Belichick’s point, there just isn’t a lot of tape to evaluate Wilson since donning a Steelers uniform. Of course, he has a lengthy career resume but part of Wilson coming to Pittsburgh was for a fresh start. To wipe the slate clean from two tough years in Denver that, as Wilson’s camp I’m sure would argue, didn’t accurately utilize his skill set. And when you’re trying to judge Wilson and Fields, the comparison is difficult to make considering how little Wilson has worked this year.
Belichick’s advice was to only make a quarterback change once it was abundantly clear it would elevate the offense.
“You go with that quarterback when you’re sure that he’s gonna upgrade your team,” he said. “If you’re not sure, you probably stay with where you’re at.”
Perhaps that’s Tomlin’s calculation. Pittsburgh has the 20th-ranked scoring offense and perhaps Tomlin thinks Wilson is unlikely to do worse than that and hopefully outperform that metric. But if he gets this wrong and the Steelers start to lose, even if Wilson plays on the same level as Fields, Tomlin will own his decision.
