Bill Cowher Explains Why Russell Wilson Should Be Steelers Starter Over Justin Fields
A lot was left to be desired with Russell Wilson’s Pittsburgh Steelers debut on Saturday night, but former Steelers head coach and Hall of Famer Bill Cowher isn’t worried. He thinks Wilson should still be the team’s starting quarterback on Sept. 8 against the Atlanta Falcons in the season opener.
“If I’m Mike Tomlin … I think you start the season with Russell,” Cowher said on the Pat McAfee Show. “Justin Fields, if he starts as the second guy, have a package of plays. If all of a sudden you need a spark, something to get your offense going again, put him in. If you have to take Russell out, he’s been there before. It’s not going to destroy his confidence. I don’t want to start Justin Fields, then feel like I have to make a change and I take him out. … I would take the pressure off of Justin, start Russell, and Russell may take it and run with it.”
"If I'm Mike Tomlin I would start the season with Russell Wilson..
I would take the pressure off of Justin Fields and see if Russell can take it and run with it"@CowherCBS #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/UL1AMrGtG4
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 19, 2024
The first-team offense has scored zero points through two preseason games. Wilson was also sacked three times in Saturday night’s 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Cowher believes new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is playing it close to the vest and running a vanilla offense during the preseason.
“I look at the first two games, and I would just say this. I think with Russell Wilson, I don’t know how totally healthy (he was), and how much they wanted to open up the offense under Arthur Smith. I think Arthur is saving a lot of these things right now,” Cowher said.
Wilson missed the first two weeks of training camp with a calf injury, which he sustained during the team’s conditioning test on July 24.
Tomlin has repeatedly stated that Wilson is in “pole position” to be the Steelers starter, and Justin Fields really hasn’t shown enough to change that. Tomlin said it was tough to evaluate Wilson’s performance on Saturday due to the horrendous offensive line play.
“Again, it’s somewhat of an incomplete study because you just don’t get a chance to see him operate, or us operate, or us establish rhythm and personality when you’re not winning possession downs,” Tomlin said. “And we weren’t, the first three or so series of the game it was three-and-out, and you’re not going to get an opportunity to establish rhythm or play the way that you would like as an individual or a collective.”
Russell Wilson thinks staying on schedule is the biggest correction that the offense needs to make.
“If we just stayed on schedule. The biggest thing is staying on schedule,” Wilson said. “We had too many third-and-longs in the first two drives in particular. We did some good things on offense, but at the same time, we just got to give us the best chance possible to be successful. And that’s third-and-shorts and third-and-mediums. We converted one of those later in the second quarter or whatever it was, Van (Jefferson) did a good job sitting over the middle. I think the best thing we can do is put our heads down and keep on getting to work.”
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