Usually, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t make any drastic changes when things are going well. Even when things are going poorly, they tend to try to ride out the storm. Take one look at Matt Canada or Kenny Pickett. However, at 4-2, it looks like they’re going to bench Justin Fields. The decision seems odd considering Fields wasn’t the offense’s biggest problem. Former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth believes this decision makes the Steelers a mess.
“There’s a car accident kind of quality to what Pittsburgh is doing right now,” Schlereth said Thursday on FS1’s Breakfast Ball. “I have got to rubberneck and look, to see exactly what goes down with this quarterback situation.”
That’s certainly an interesting way to describe the Steelers’ quarterback situation. It’s tough to dispute or support that opinion yet. It doesn’t look good that the Steelers are changing their quarterback when they were winning games. However, when you consider that Russell Wilson was always listed as the starter, it makes more sense.
Fields isn’t getting benched because he has played poorly. This is happening because the Steelers made a commitment to Wilson as their starter, and they still feel like he gives them the best chance to win. Their offense still hasn’t been good enough this year. They want to see if Wilson can change that. It’s not the worst reason in the world.
During that same segment, Schlereth continued explaining why he has a problem with what the Steelers are doing.
“This [Wilson] thing is interesting to me because you’re 4-2. Don’t create your own quarterback controversy. And they’ve done it” he said “They’ve created their own quarterback controversy.”
It’s not fair to say the Steelers created this quarterback controversy, but they certainly haven’t helped dissolve it. Wilson going down due to an injury after being named the starter was always going to drum up some noise. Now that Fields has looked serviceable, that noise has only grown louder.
However, the Steelers could’ve dispelled some of that chatter this week by officially naming a starter. Instead, Mike Tomlin has played coy. Rather than commit to Wilson because he earned the job in the first place, Tomlin has left the door open for Fields. It’s obvious he wants to make the New York Jets think a little harder this week, but it might not have been the best decision in the long run.
Schlereth is correct that it’s tough to look away from the Steelers right now. They’ll be playing in primetime this week too, so all eyes are going to be on them. Whether they look ugly or pretty, people are going to talk. All the Steelers care about is winning though. If they can do that with Wilson under center, then there shouldn’t really be any issues. It’ll only be if they start losing that some problems are going to appear.
