Over the last week since the Pittsburgh Steelers took the field against the Buffalo Bills and looked lackluster offensively, the uproar around Pittsburgh and the national media about the offense has reached a fever pitch. For example, former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi said the Steelers should sign free-agent quarterback Ryan Tannehill on Wednesday.
Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum has a take for what to do with the Steelers quarterback room, too. He believes the team should move on from Russell Wilson already. The Minnesota Vikings lost rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy for the season with a torn meniscus and will start Sam Darnold, but Tannenbaum points to Wilson as an obvious upgrade.
That is the entire basis of Tannenbaum’s argument to make the trade for the Steelers, who he thinks should start the younger Fields, who has more upside.
"Unfortunately for Minnesota, history is repeating itself,” Tannenbaum said. “We go back to 2016, very unfortunate injury. Teddy Bridgewater had a catastrophic injury at practice. Sam Bradford gets traded from the Eagles to the Vikings. So to me, I think a win-win here is to trade Russell Wilson to Minnesota. I think he’s a better quarterback than Sam Darnold.”
This might make sense for the Vikings, though Darnold is reportedly impressing in training camp. Yet, it does not compute for the Steelers to trade their likely starting quarterback. Even if people are high on Fields and see him as someone who could be the solution for the position, the preseason film has been rough for him, too.
Wilson is dealing with a calf injury and still does not look 100 percent, but there is upside to him looking much better than he did Saturday against the Bills. The team’s game against the Detroit Lions will be critical to getting the offense some much-needed confidence.
