Do the Pittsburgh Steelers have a quarterback problem? It’s too early to say but in the front office’s aggression to rebuild the roster, they did add two quarterbacks with significant starting experience in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields and both guys want to start this season.
NFL writer Judy Battista offered up her bold predictions for the upcoming season and one of the biggest is that she believes Wilson will kick off the season as the starter but end up benched in favor of Fields.
Steelers are paying Wilson a little more than $1 million, while the Broncos are paying the rest of his $39 million salary. That minimal investment by Pittsburgh means there will be little to keep it from turning to Fields if Wilson struggles. Arthur Smith is an experienced and successful offensive coordinator, but any struggle by Wilson — and playing against the defenses in the AFC North gives quarterbacks plenty of chances to struggle — will open the door to Fields, whom the Steelers would almost certainly like to see play before having to decide on his future. I’m calling it: Wilson wins the starting job out of camp, but he won’t hold on to it, and Fields will have Terrible Towels waving for him.
While this prediction might be bold, it’s not at all unreasonable. Pittsburgh has Wilson and Fields both on one-year contracts and they are going to want to see what they have in both guys to sort out future contracts. Even if Wilson is the starter and plays well, we expect to see Fields get reps just so the team can evaluate him for the future.
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