If you are a little confused at the lack of a definitive answer on who is starting between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson in Week 7, you aren’t the only one. ESPN insider Dan Graziano said the only way to get an answer would be to talk to Mike Tomlin directly because “he’s the only one who’s gonna make this decision.”
While many signs point to Wilson being named starter, apparently Tomlin has kept his own coaching staff in the dark throughout most of this week. I would imagine the decision is worked out by now, but they apparently went to great lengths to maintain the idea of a competition throughout the week.
“[Tomlin] has told his offensive coaching staff early in the week, ‘Get them both ready and by the end of the week, I’ll let you know what we’re gonna do,'” Graziano said via ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike this morning. “They’ve got two different game plans that they’re installing this week depending on who’s the starting quarterback.”
I have been pretty supportive of the decision to go with Wilson despite the 4-2 start for the Steelers, but this approach just seems wrong. That is potentially a lot of wasted time in preparing for the good, albeit underperforming, defense of the New York Jets. Maybe that was the Monday morning message to his coordinators and Tomlin had his mind made up by Tuesday. By Wednesday, Tomlin said he was keeping any decisions in-house for now. Obviously there is no way to tell when or if the decision has been made, but I don’t see the benefit of delaying the announcement.
You could argue gamesmanship to throw the Jets off, but they are going to be preparing for both quarterbacks regardless, with a strong potential for Fields to see a limited number of plays in the event Wilson starts.
“Depending on who’s the starting quarterback, I would guess that even if Russell Wilson starts, you might see Justin Fields sometime in the game because the plan going into Week 1 when they thought Russell was gonna start was they had plays that they wanted to run with Justin Fields,” Graziano said. “There are a lot of people around this situation that aren’t sure what Mike Tomlin is thinking and why he would do this at 4-2.”
At the end of the day, whatever Tomlin is doing, he is doing so with the intention of winning the most possible games. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a ton of heat if he ends up starting Wilson and the experiment crashes and burns.
