Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and senior NFL writer Jori Epstein discuss the possibility of Russell Wilson starting for the Steelers after Justin Fields has led the team to a 4-2 start. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Justin Fields went four and two.
Everybody’s got good feels about Pittsburgh, but it’s now been made clear by Mike Toddler that Russell Wilson is fully healthy, which creates the question of QB one, like, uh I, I don’t know when you’re four and two, do you make a quarterback change here?
What’s going on?
Yeah, it’s such a fascinating situation because for a long time, they were able to slow play, potentially Russell Wilson coming back from his injury.
I’m not saying that they did that, but they had the opportunity to, if they wanted to week ago as Russell was working into full practice for the first time, Mike Tomlin did say that Justin Fields would continue to get the first team reps for now and that Russell would start with the second team.
So as quote to not disrupt Justin’s game preparation and that is not the language we are hearing this week, what Justin Fields can do with his legs and the way he has his mobility is an element of the game that Russell Wilson does not have.
But this is still a guy who completed what, 58% of his passes, no passing touchdowns against the Raiders.
And so he doesn’t necessarily have the arm talent and at least he demonstrated arm talent with this cast that Mike Tomlin is looking for.
What’s been fascinating to me watching Mike Tomlin’s last Tuesday press conferences is that after the Cowboys played the Steelers, Mike Tomlin just kind of went off on this tangent that I wasn’t expecting about how much he needed to respect Dak Prescott’s game.
And did you see the ball he threw on the seam on third at nine and blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, huh?
And then this week he gave similar praise to Aaron Rodgers.
Mike Tomlin has been very, very adamant praising other quarterbacks arm talent in the last couple weeks.
And I think he looks at that and says, hey, when it comes down to it, when I need that throw, do I believe that Justin Fields is going to make that throw?
And if I don’t think he is, do I think Russell Wilson is?
And so there’s kind of this complication of it’s not that there are two guys with a very similar skill set, one of whom is better.
They offer different elements to the offense.
What do you do with that?
Now, I was a little bit unconvinced by the way that Mike Tomlin said, like, when people were asking him about the starters and who’s going to get the first team reps?
He was like, we haven’t decided minutia like that.
And I’m like, oh, please Mike.
And then when he talked, when people kept asking him questions about the quarterback, he goes, yeah, it’s cute that you guys are asking all of these questions.
It’s only Tuesday props to Mike Tomlin for wanting to have the gamesmanship.
Why would you tell another team which quarterback they should prepare for, particularly when they have such different skill sets?
But I think that it does seem increasingly likely that Russell Wilson is going to get his opportunity to start.
And then again, you have that opportunity to go back to Justin fields if it doesn’t work out.
But it does seem like Mike Tomlin wants to give Russell Wilson that opportunity.