Russell Wilson left Seattle and shifted base to Denver in 2022 and since then, nothing has gone right for the veteran QB. His “Let’s Ride” motto, used to motivate his home city, has turned into a meme. Eventually, he was released by the Broncos earlier this year. That’s how drastic Wilson’s fall has been.
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Thankfully, Mike Tomlin saw potential in Russ and decided to rope him in for the 2024 season. However, as fate would have it, the veteran re-aggravated his calf injury before week 1 and ended up on the sidelines for 6 weeks. Finally, he seems fit enough for the week 7 clash against the Jets. Moreover, if we go by NFL insider Adam Schefter’s report, Russ’ fans finally have something to cheer about.
“Russell Wilson was taking some first-team reps during practice today for the first time this season. If you follow the breadcrumbs, this is trending towards Russell Wilson starting on Sunday night against the New York Jets and Davante Adams,” Adam said on ESPN NFL Live.
Schefter claimed that Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin declared he is open to starting Russell Wilson vs the Jets. To make his claims more robust, Schefter added that publicly opening up to the idea of starting Russ, then giving him first-team reps, only to start Justin Fields doesn’t sound like something Tomlin would do.
Schefter is definitely making sense here. Simply because Tomlin is not one of those uncertain coaches who shy away from taking tough calls.
Mike Tomlin is thinking ahead
Make no mistake, benching Justin Fields, who is 4-2 after 6 games, only to start a QB who is probably in the twilight of his career and has failed to live up to the expectations for the last couple of years, is not an easy call to take. However, this is where Tomlin is different.
The legendary coach is probably looking to find a few answers before it is too late and if you are 4-2 after 6 weeks, you can afford to do that. Just in case Fields ends up losing his touch, or unfortunately gets sidelined due to an injury, a game-ready Russell Wilson would be required to lead the unit. How ready is Wilson? The world will get to see vs Jets.
Moreover, testing Wilson against a strong Jets defense is a smart move. In case, Russ fails, the entire unit will have no problem in rallying behind Fields. If Wilson succeeds in bamboozling the Jets, the Steelers would have a problem every team in the competition is dying to have — the problem of plenty.
