The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback battle is still in progress with a decision likely soon after the team's preseason finale loss against the Detroit Lions, 24-17. Both quarterbacks led the Steelers to scoring drives, but Wilson started the game and was pulled after one series which led the way to Justin Fields who played three drives.
In a strategic move, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin left the starting offensive lineman out for the first series with Fields after Wilson so both can get accustomed to one another. Fields would have a straight-forward message to the offensive line saying that “there's also room to grow” after saying “they did all right” according to ESPN.
“They did all right, but there's also room to grow,” Fields said of the offensive line. “So just going to look at the mistakes that we had and what plays we could have done better on and get better.”
Steelers' Mike Tomlin on leaving starting offensive line for Justin Fields
Fields completed three of four passes for 40 yards while Wilson completed all two of his passes for 26 yards as both quarterbacks had ratings of over 100. Tomlin explained the decision to keep the starting offensive line out there for Fields after Wilson's opening drive.
“Because I just wanted to put some people around him that could protect him,” Tomlin said. “That's appropriate. You can see I got nervous when we moved on from some of those groups, and I got him out of there.”
As for when an official decision will be made, Tomlin does not give an exact date though he says by the “end of our work week.”
“We'll make a decision at the end of our work week,” Tomlin said. “This upcoming week we have three days of Steelers vs. Steelers work and why not do it then?”
Mike Tomlin speaks more on the Steelers' quarterback battle
Tomlin has said time and time again that Wilson has the “pole position” due to his bevy of experience in the NFL as he's a Super Bowl champion and has seen success. Though like Fields, he's looking for a fresh start after a disappointing stint with the Denver Broncos as Tomlin reflects on the move to take out Wilson after one series.
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“We just needed results that are indicative of how we've worked,” Tomlin said Saturday. “And so they were able to put together a score and drive and really just provided an opportunity to get Justin in there sooner, and so that's why we did it.”
If Steelers fans are looking at the semantics of who Tomlin believes will be the starting quarterback for Week 1, good luck finding it as he would credit both signal-callers after the game Saturday. Some of the aspects he mentioned was how both “put the ball in the end zone” and “won possession downs” which were traits that was not present in the past two preseason games.
“They both moved the ball,” Tomlin said via ESPN. “They won possession downs, they were able to put the ball in the end zone. Things that we hadn't done to this point sufficiently enough in the preseason.”
At any rate, the decision should come sooner rather than later as Week 1 is on Sunday, Sept. 8 when the Steelers take on the Atlanta Falcons.
