It was sort of a bizarre week for the Pittsburgh Steelers in terms of their approach to preparation for their Week 7 game against the New York Jets. Mike Tomlin effectively chose to hide the starting quarterback decision all week long. He won’t speak to the media again before the game, so we won’t know for sure until the offense takes the field for the first time.
While all signs point to Russell Wilson getting his first start in black and gold, Tomlin declined to answer that question on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. He said the decision would remain in-house. George Pickens more or less spoiled what little surprise there was left when he outright said it would be Wilson’s first start.
Could this have irked Tomlin that Pickens revealed his grand surprise after all the effort?
“To be honest with you, I don’t know if Mike Tomlin really cares or not,” said Steelers insider Mark Kaboly via 93.7 The Fan’s PM Team. “I mean, all of us know that Russell was gonna play. Obviously, the Jets knew that Russell was going to start. I mean, if we know, they know, they anticipated. He could label it under gamesmanship, but I think he might have been partly out of spite. ‘Hey, you’re making a big deal out of this? Hey, we’ll make you wait til Sunday’ type of thing. So I don’t think he’s too worried about it.”
Tomlin has been known to get short with the media, and the quarterback decision is one of his least favorite topics. He has been asked about the starting quarterback in basically every press conference since Wilson and Justin Fields joined the team. He has been asked in various ways, and he shuts it down every time.
Obviously, the team is aware of who is starting by now, but Tomlin still hasn’t made anything official. There may be some gamesmanship involved to keep the Jets guessing, but they were going to be preparing for both quarterbacks regardless. Maybe if the starter ended up being Fields, then the gamesmanship of it all would make more sense. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that the offensive coaching staff was told to prepare both quarterbacks at the beginning of the week, which included getting two separate game plans together. If it was gamesmanship to make the Jets waste time, the Steelers may have wasted some time themselves.
I suppose I could see Tomlin remaining mum about the QB situation simply to spite the media. This whole week of storylines could have been put to rest on Tuesday or Wednesday had he just come out and said what his plans were. However, there were enough clues from player interviews, reports out of practice, and more to indicate Wilson is starting.
