UNITY TWP., Pa. — The Pittsburgh Steelers swear that they are holding a competition at quarterback between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Wilson has had one half of one practice through the first two weeks of training camp practices. Fields has played reasonably well in his absence, looking at least as good as he did in 2023, and possibly better.
Wilson remains the Steelers starting quarterback.
So what gives?
Wilson was given “pole position” by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin entering the offseason. The 35-year-old veteran quarterback came with plenty of reasons to grant him that status.
Wilson had a 98.0 passer rating and a 5.72 adjusted net yards per attempt last season with he Denver Broncos. Even though that was Wilson’s second-worst passer rating since 2018 and worst career ANY/Y, both of those figures were better than Fields last season, who set career highs with an 86.3 rating and 5.29 ANY/A.
Wilson’s worst year has been better than Fields’ best.
So when they’re competing, it’s not like the results of training camp practices, or even preseason games, are going to be the sole factor at play here. It’s not like trying to decide between Darius Rush and Cory Trice Jr. at Dime cornerback. Those guys have next to no track record of NFL success. The only thing to go on is what happens in training camp and the preseason.
Even if Fields looks like the better player for all of training camp and the preseason, it’s reasonable to be wary about him translating that success to the regular season. Tomlin said on Wednesday that preseason games will be more heavily weighted than what happens in training camp practices.
But what he didn’t say is that their career histories are going to be even more heavily weighted. Fields will have to look like a clearly better player to be considered for playing time over Wilson, and that’s a reasonable reaction to the history that the players came with.
Of course, it’s hard to be better than someone that isn’t practicing. Fields is going to start the first preseason game, and Wilson is not going to play. If he starts to look like an improved player compared to his 2023 self in that setting, that might make the rest of the preseason a more serious competition.
Fields overflows with talent. What has held him back from being successful are the kind of mental and processing errors that are hard to replicate in a low-stakes environment like training camp. These preseason games really are important for him, if he wants to show improvement.
All Wilson has to do, on the other hand, is show that his skills have not atrophied as he approaches his 36th birthday. He can do that in training camp.
The stakes are not the same. The competition is asymmetrical. But it’s still a sensical one. As Tomlin likes to say, he doesn’t treat people the same, he treats them fairly.
Fields will have to do a lot more to win the job than Wilson will have to do to lose it, and they’ve both earned that placement in the pecking order.
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