Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is apparently healthy, with two straight days of full participation in practice. He remains QB1 on the official depth chart.
On Sunday at the Raiders, will it be Wilson or Justin Fields at quarterback.
Mark Kaboly, who covers the Steelers for The Pat McAfee Show, believes Fields will start on Sunday, even as Wilson is by all appearances ready to go, five weeks after aggravating a calf injury.
The Steelers thing to do would be to play Wilson. Then again, the Steelers have not recently handled the quarterback position in the Steelers way. They dumped the entire depth chart after 2023, trading 2022 first-rounder Kenny Pickett after only two seasons.
After Sunday’s game at Las Vegas, the Steelers host the Jets on Sunday Night Football before visiting the Giants on Monday Night Football. Then comes their bye. It’s not a stretch for the 3-2 Steelers to be 6-2 at the break, regardless of whether it’s Fields or Wilson at quarterback.
Things get interesting for Pittsburgh after the bye. They play the surprisingly stout Commanders, the Chiefs, the Eagles, and all three AFC North rivals (twice) down the stretch. Will it be Wilson, or will it be Fields, for the final nine games?
The question would be easier to resolve, if the Steelers had won on Sunday night against the Cowboys. Fields seemed to regress in the loss to Dallas. The door seems to be open for Wilson.
On Thursday’s PFT Live, Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy said that Wilson looked great at practice last week, running the scout team against the starting defense. That, coupled with Wilson’s full return to practice, points to Wilson. Based on the way the Steelers do things.
The question is whether they’ll do things the way they always have, or whether they’ll be continuing their recent trend of doing things differently.
