Russell Wilson faced a challenge from his pole-position spot, but the veteran will hold off Justin Fields. The Steelers will go with the 13th-year passer to open the season, Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reports. The Steelers have since announced it will be Wilson in Week 1.
The Steelers went to some lengths to assure Wilson he would be the starter. This was communicated to the decorated veteran before the Kenny Pickett trade and then after the team acquired Fields. While the latter has made a push that indicates this situation is not resolved from a long-term perspective, Fields will begin his Pittsburgh tenure as a backup.
Fields was believed to have supporters in the building, as the Steelers went about adjusting his footwork from his Bears days. Rather than name a starter before the third preseason game, Mike Tomlin waited until midway through the Steelers’ final week of summer workouts. This does not suggest Wilson will have a firm grip here, despite the early-offseason buzz about this job, but the 35-year-old passer will soon make his 189th career start.
Despite Fields closing the gap, the 25-year-old trade acquisition never emerged as a frontrunner. The Steelers may have been more inclined, after seeing Pickett stumble, to go with a more experienced option early. After trading Pickett, Pittsburgh signed off on a unique arrangement. Wilson and Fields are on low-cost deals that expire at season’s end. The team is not deviating from its policy of not negotiating extensions in-season, and no talks are planned to commence before the campaign. Both passers will head into contract years, and although reports about the Steelers eyeing a post-2024 future with both have come out, this Wilson-Fields setup will almost certainly be a one-and-done situation.
Calling this a “difficult decision,” Tomlin communicated it to both QBs today. This was Wilson’s first time in a quarterback competition since his rookie year, when he beat out Matt Flynn for the Seahawks’ job. The potential Hall of Famer held it for 10 years, but the Seahawks — after Wilson’s first injury-related absence came during a season that brought a step back from his Pro Bowl-level form — dealt his $35MM-per-year contract to the Broncos for an eight-asset package in March 2022. Wilson then signed a $49MM-AAV deal with Denver, going through an infamous tenure with the AFC West franchise.
Wilson’s Broncos run can be classified as a financial disaster, and while Sean Payton made it clear his fit with the off-script maven was poor, the 2023 season went much better for the former third-round pick compared to the shocking 2022 outcome.
Wilson rebounded from his rough season with Nathaniel Hackett, a campaign in which the Broncos allowed the QB to help design the offense and then gave him other perks, by throwing 26 touchdown passes compared to just eight interceptions with Payton at the controls. This still produced a late-season benching — after a behind-the-scenes drama unfolded regarding Wilson’s 2025 guarantee vesting date — but Wilson did show some better form, helping the Broncos to a five-game win streak that moved them into the playoff chase.
Denver took on a record-smashing dead money sum to separate from the embattled quarterback; regardless of offset language, Denver’s cap penalty over the next two years more than doubles any other single-player number. The Steelers swooped in an have the accomplished passer on a one-year, $1.21MM deal. But Wilson, who battled injuries in 2022 to contribute to his stunning regression, missed multiple weeks of training camp with a calf injury and only recently received full clearance. This allowed Fields to catch up a bit, and this situation will be one to monitor early in the season.
In the preseason, Fields went 19-for-27 for 199 yards. Playing in two preseason games, Wilson was 10 of 12 for 73 yards. Both struggled to move the offense in Pittsburgh’s second preseason game, but Wilson led a TD drive in the team’s finale. Fields did not lead any scoring drives against Detroit this past weekend. Fields probably offers more upside at this point, as Wilson will turn 36 in November, but the veteran brings a higher floor.
The Steelers will aim to pair Wilson with a veteran-laden defense, and it remains to be seen if the team will pry Brandon Aiyuk from the 49ers. Though, that scenario appears a longshot right now.