Pittsburgh Steelers QB Russell Wilson seems to be making some solid progress in his recovery from his calf injury, as he posted an Instagram story of him running on a treadmill Saturday afternoon. He captioned it “Rehab sucks. But it’s gonna be worth it.”
While it’s hard to know for sure, it looks like Wilson is using an anti-gravity treadmill, one which would reduce the weight-bearing load on his calf.
Wilson originally injured his calf during Pittsburgh’s conditioning test when he was pushing a sled, and he re-aggravated the injury in practice ahead of Week 1. He’s since been inactive for Pittsburgh’s first four games, while Justin Fields has led the Steelers to a 3-1 record, setting up a potential quarterback controversy when Wilson is healthy.
It’s good to see Wilson getting healthier, and head coach Mike Tomlin said this week that he was on schedule to keep doing more work in practice. He was a limited participant all three days of practice this week though, and again projects to be inactive and serve as Pittsburgh’s emergency third quarterback on Sunday.
Wilson is seemingly taking his time with his rehab after re-aggravating the injury, as he and the Steelers know what can happen if he comes back too soon, which may have been the case after the original calf injury. The focus is on getting Wilson up to 100% and building up the calf to be as strong as possible so Wilson can be the best quarterback possible and help the Steelers however he’s needed.
With Fields playing well so far, Wilson might not come back and be Pittsburgh’s starter despite being announced as the starter ahead of the season. Whenever Wilson does return, it’ll make for an interesting decision from Mike Tomlin, but it’s one that won’t be made until Wilson is fully healthy. For what it’s worth, Wilson still remains listed as QB1 on the depth chart.
Wilson looks good on the treadmill, but running in a straight line and being able to have the mobility to navigate the pocket against a defense are two different things. There’s no doubt though that Wilson is making progress, and it seems like he’s going to be back fully healthy sooner rather than later.
