After the Pittsburgh Steelers knocked off the Atlanta Falcons 18-10, the team will have to go back to the drawing board at quarterback and decide who they want to start. However, that contentious decision all reflects the idea that Russell Wilson is healthy. After re-injuring his calf in Thursday’s practice, Wilson sat out the team’s first game against the Falcons, though he pushed to play. Could he return against the Denver Broncos? NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has serious doubts that Wilson will end up playing against the Broncos. In fact, he never thought Wilson was all that close to playing against the Falcons, despite much of the media coverage leading up to it that indicated he might give it a shot and play.I didn’t think he was particularly close to playing this week,” Rapoport told KOA Sports. “I know they kind of did the drawn out like workout or whatever. I did not think he was particularly close to playing. That makes me think it’s probably going to be another week
It would not be that much of a surprise to see the Steelers play Fields once again. Head coach Mike Tomlin declared after the game that he decided it would be better to face short-term misery than a long-term injury to Wilson. That would be another decision to reinforce that belief. When he first injured his calf, Wilson missed two weeks and did not fully practice for another week and a half
“It’s really not a long, drawn-out process. I’d rather deal with short-term misery, to be quite honest with you. We’re in Week 1. There’s a lot of ball out in front of us. I just thought it was appropriate to put the healthy guys on the field. I felt really good about both quarterbacks. I was very clear to you guys when I named Russ the starter how comfortable I was with both quarterbacks,” Tomlin saidFields threw for 156 yards and ran for 57 more yards on Sunday in the win over the Falcons. While not flashy stats, and he did not add a touchdown to those stats to dazzle them up, Fields did what he needed to do and took care of the football. If he does that against the Broncos, the Steelers can feel confident in him stepping in at any point
