The Pittsburgh Steelers shifted to Russell Wilson at quarterback last week, and the early results are positive. While he needed to knock some rust off, he ultimately played pretty well, but with room to grow. But all LT Dan Moore Jr. knows is that he is easy for the offensive line to play with. He gives them what they need from a quarterback, and that is all they can ask.
“I thought [Russell Wilson] did a really good job of commanding in the huddle”, Moore told George Von Benko of WMBS radio. “I thought he did a really good job communicating with us, especially on the offensive line, getting us on the same page. I thought he did a great job making decisions and getting the ball out. As offensive linemen, you love when your QB’s getting the ball out on rhythm. It makes your job a lot easier, just managing the game, keeping us all up-tempo”.
The Steelers, of course, spent the first six games playing with Justin Fields under center. While not historically a rhythm passer, he tightened up his time to throw for most of the season. However, in his last few starts, that number started creeping back up. While Russell Wilson isn’t the quickest passer, he delivers a higher percentage of rhythm. He also has a tendency to extend plays considerably, so that means his mean average looks higher than median.
Dan Moore spent the first year of his career blocking for Ben Roethlisberger, followed by an odd assortment of Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, and Mason Rudolph. This year’s switch to Russell Wilson and Justin Fields has been a stark one, for sure.
While Wilson and Fields have some similarities, Wilson is a far more traditional passer. In fact, he is the most traditional passer they have had since Roethlisberger, barring perhaps Rudolph. Combined with his immense experience, Dan Moore and the offensive line clearly see that. And while he didn’t say it, I’m sure he saw at least some contrast to playing with Justin Fields.
In case you’re waking up from an extended coma, Russell Wilson injured his calf at the start of training camp. In between that and aggravating the injury, the Steelers named him their starting quarterback. But it took him seven weeks to get on the field and start, and he looked rusty initially. But the feeling on the field was different.
“I guess on the outside in, it might have seemed like it was bad”, Moore said of Russell Wilson’s sluggish start. “But just being in the huddle, the confidence that we had, the swag that we had, even when things weren’t going our way early in the game, I still felt like we knew at some point things were gonna change. It was gonna hit. We all believed it. Russ believed it”.
It worked for one game, and that’s nice and all, of course, but the Steelers have another 12 or 13 games to play, or so they hope. This is a team with Super Bowl aspirations, and that is why Russell Wilson is on the field right now. Because he can do all those little things like making things easier on the offensive line.
