All signs point to Russell Wilson being healthy after sitting out the first five weeks of the season. He was named the Pittsburgh Steelers’ QB1 just a week before the season began and remains there on the depth chart. After two-straight losses with Justin Fields looking very poor against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, is it time to go back to Wilson as the starter?
There has been no bigger proponent of starting Fields than ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky. Even before Wilson was injured, he has been calling for Fields to start. Nothing is changing on that front with him once again going to bat for Fields.
“I would say that’s the wrong decision,” Orlovsky said of Wilson potentially becoming the starter on ESPN’s Get Up. “I would say that Pittsburgh has an offensive problem and it’s not the quarterback. The offensive line is not very good. They’re not running the football nearly as well as I thought they would. There’s no one getting open that much for this offense. George Pickens is unbelievably talented, but he’s not winning that much and they’re certainly not getting him the football enough early on in the football games.
“If you have to ask me what’s the fix for Pittsburgh’s offense, it is not the quarterback. It is, they need a pass catcher opposite George Pickens to become a viable threat.”
Van Jefferson is the Steelers’ No. 2 WR, and he has five receptions on eight targets for 36 yards this season. The entire wide receiver group excluding Pickens has done very little outside of a couple explosive plays by Calvin Austin III. In obvious passing situations, Pickens is the clear target. When teams do a good job of covering him, the Steelers have had no answers.
The Steelers are in on Davante Adams, but he reportedly wants to go to either New Orleans or New York to reunite with his old quarterbacks. Would he really want to come to Pittsburgh after back-to-back losses?
Fields has come back down to earth after steady progression over the first four weeks. He didn’t turn the ball over in the Sunday night loss, but he did have multiple turnover-worthy plays. At one point, he had a fumble that he narrowly recovered and a near interception on back-to-back plays.
If you take out the lateral play in garbage time, the Steelers were plus three in turnover differential. For an offense to have that kind of advantage and still lose the game and only put up 17 points is pretty bad. Fields had two touchdowns to zero interceptions, but he only completed 15 of his 27 attempts for 131 yards and rushed for 27 yards on six carries.
The Steelers brought Russell Wilson in to be the veteran leader of the team. Fields looked like he was running away with the job after three weeks, but the back-to-back losses have created a natural breaking point for the team to go back to Wilson without much drama. The Fields experiment isn’t over, but I do think the Steelers need to see what Wilson is capable of in hopes of sparking the offense.
