Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and NFL writer Frank Schwab discuss Pittsburgh’s quarterback quandary — as the formers Bears signal caller stepped in for Russell Wilson to lead the Steelers to a Week 1 win on the road over the Falcons. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
We find out this morning that Justin Fields is, in fact the starter because of calf tightness, which then raises the again, conspiracy theory that maybe they just always knew that Justin Fields was gonna be the starter and it was an efficient game.
I mean, if you look at the stat line for Justin Fields 17 to 23 for a buck, 56 quarterback rating is just under 92 and typical to him carries 57 yards.
He, he added something on the ground which he always does like there was an extra element to it.
So I thought it was a fairly clean game for Justin, uh, no touchdowns, no picks.
I kept looking at that thinking man, if, if you were, if it was a tie, if you were looking at it saying, I don’t know, there’s not really a discernible difference between Russ and Justin.
Justin didn’t do anything this week.
That would make me think he shouldn’t be the starter moving forward.
Exactly.
I, I think that, I don’t know what they’re gonna do, Mike Thomas.
He’s very stubborn about this issue, but I, I, it’s hard for me to believe that they don’t have Justin Fields as a quarterback a week too, even if Russ is back.
I mean, again, it’s, it’s never all that pretty with Justin Fields.
We, again, we understand there are flaws to his game, but he does make things happen.
He can complete passes, he can make big plays with his legs.
He, he’s gonna miss some passes.
That’s what he does, but still 17 to 23.
Again, perfectly reasonable today as your quarterback and you just won a game against an Atlanta team.
Everybody thought was going to win that division, including me.
I don’t know how you turn back.
I don’t know why you, you’d start Russell week too, especially going to Denver, which is going to be just horrible for him because the fans really are out for blood.
Uh, I, I don’t know, I think Jos Vile has to be their starter, but we’ll see what Mike Tomlin has to say because again, he’s been very stubborn about this whole Russell Wilson thing.