It’s a bit of an odd position to be in at 4-2, wondering if a quarterback change is necessary, but here we are. Russell Wilson was active for the first time all season Sunday to back up Justin Fields, but Mike Tomlin is now out of excuses. He is going to have to name a starting quarterback one way or the other on Tuesday. If I were him, I would make a change and put in Russell Wilson.
Last week, he was able to leave Wilson atop the depth chart and point to his rust as a reason why he wasn’t in contention to start over Fields. That isn’t going to hit the same after two full weeks of practice for a 35-year-old quarterback that has a decent chance of ending up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame some day.
So why make a change? My argument boils down to two things.
1) The offense simply hasn’t been good enough.
2) The Steelers need to find out what they have in Russell Wilson before the trade deadline.
There have been flashes over the first six weeks, but the offense hasn’t been able to put together a complete game yet. The 32 points scored against the Raiders suggests a high level of success, but the defense and special teams units served up three prime scoring opportunities on a silver platter. Even then, the Steelers didn’t make the most of those.
I will admit Fields has done better than I anticipated he would over the first six games. He has improved in many of the key areas that plagued him over his first three NFL seasons in Chicago. He is taking less unnecessary sacks while limiting the turnovers and negative plays that defined his early career. His legs are obviously a weapon, and I think he has struck a good balance of only using them when necessary and not relying too heavily on running the ball when his first read isn’t open.
All these things are good, and they suggest that the arrow is pointing up. Fields should definitely be under consideration for the QB1 job in 2025 and beyond, and I think there is a good chance that happens. But is anybody really convinced that this offense will be capable of competing in the playoffs?
As we saw against the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys, the second that the defense stopped playing up to its potential, the whole operation fell apart. Even when Fields “damn near took the game over” against the Colts, it still wasn’t enough.
The Steelers spent the entire offseason trying to figure out how to win now. Russell Wilson could give them that chance. They brought him in as a high-pedigree, been-there done-that quarterback. People will argue he only went 11-19 over his last two seasons with the Broncos, but his passing statistics were actually quite good in 2023. And if that argument is used, then you can’t ignore Fields’ 8-20 record over the last two years. Neither of those Bears nor Broncos teams were as talented as this current Steelers group. If Fields can progress to be a 4-2 quarterback, what can Wilson do?
My whole point is, I at least want to figure out what they have in Wilson, and best to do it well before the trade deadline on Nov. 5. The Steelers only play two more games before then with their bye week coming in Week 9.
Tomlin has been strategically ambiguous with his approach to naming a starting quarterback to allow him flexibility to do whatever he wants. There would be no harm in using that flexibility to try out Wilson as the starter. I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t go back to Fields if the Wilson experiment fails.
The offense can’t keep relying on the defense or special teams units to spark its momentum. They eventually have to figure out how to do that on their own. Maybe Wilson can provide the spark, maybe he can’t, but I at least want to see what happens.
Fields has had his worst two weeks as a pure passer against the Cowboys and the Raiders in back-to-back weeks. Now would be the logical time to make the change.
Even if the Steelers start Wilson, they now have plenty of data to build a great package of plays for Fields, as they initially intended to do from the beginning of the season.
