The biggest moment so far in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season did not come on a football field. Not originally, at least. The Steelers were 4-2 with QB Justin Fields as the starter. Yet head coach Mike Tomlin made the decision to make the switch to Russell Wilson ahead of the game versus the New York Jets.
The results so far validate Tomlin’s decision. The Steelers are 3-0 with Wilson under center. He’s thrown six touchdowns (and ran for another) while only throwing one interception. And he became the first Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger to throw three touchdowns in a single game.
But when Tomlin made the decision and informed the team, were players inside the locker room fully on board?
“That’s the one thing that Mike has in abundance and that’s great leadership,” said Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin when asked about Tomlin’s quarterback decision on Friday’s episode of the Insiders on NFL Network. “So I don’t think our guys questioned when he decided to make the move. He explained to our men, ’cause he always likes to tell our guys, Hey, if I give a capable man information, he should be able to handle that and go forward and do something positive with it. And so I don’t think there was ever any question about when he decided to make the move in our locker room.
“We trust what he’s doing. Our guys, we’re gonna fight our tails off to do what we need to do to win and let him make the decisions. And that’s why I don’t think there was any blowback from anybody. We just move forward, ’cause the bottom line is, as a leader, that’s his job to make choices. And it’s our job to help him follow up on it.”
Quarterback decisions are arguably the toughest choice to make in the NFL. It’s the most important position on the football field, and Tomlin made the choice to switch quarterbacks despite the team’s 4-2 record. But it didn’t blindside Wilson or Fields. Wilson said that Tomlin had been in constant communication with both himself and Fields throughout the process.
And Austin said that Tomlin explained why he made the decision to the team as well. Evidently, everyone bought into Tomlin’s leadership. The truth is, there wasn’t anything anyone inside that locker room could have done but accept the decision. Tomlin is the unquestioned leader of the Steelers and he has the authority to make those decisions. It’s up to everybody else to execute, as Austin said.
But what if Wilson hadn’t been able to knock the rust off versus the Jets? Would there have been blowback?
The truth is we’ll never know. But Austin says that Mike Tomlin approached the team as the leader he is which is all the players can ask. And Russell Wilson has proven Tomlin right through the first three games of his Steelers career. Now the Steelers face their stiffest test year, a matchup with their fierce rivals, the Baltimore Ravens.
