The Pittsburgh Steelers are scrambling for answers. Pittsburgh is in the middle of a four-game slide heading into their Wild Card round matchup with the Baltimore Ravens, which will be the division rivals’ third meeting of the season.
A big part of the Steelers’ recent struggles has been the floundering play of quarterback Russell Wilson, who replaced Justin Fields as the starter mid-season after returning from a calf injury. It was a controversial move at the time, as Fields performed admirably and got the Steelers off to a 4-2 start on the season.
As good as he might’ve looked out of the gate, Wilson’s recent play has been anything but. The Steelers coaches are taking note of things.
“Mike Tomlin isn’t exactly professing tons of confidence in ‘Mr. Unlimited’ at the moment,” Steelers insider Joe Starkey said, according to SteelersNation. “His comments make it seem like if Tomlin wants Russ to cook at all, it’s nothing more than scrambled eggs and toast.”
Starkey even believes that Tomlin has an ace up his sleeve.
“I have to believe that Tomlin is ready to go to his bullpen early,” Starkey said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think — based on his comments — that he’s secretly planning to start Fields.”
Fans reacted to Starkey’s revelations on social media.
“Whatever works for this team to beat the Ravens, it may work or backfire badly. The Ravens are capable of adjusting during the game and stop Justin Fields run, are you going to put Russ back in or accept defeat,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“So the Steelers are gonna start a quarterback, who’s never lead a team to the playoffs or started playoff game over a veteran quarterback who’s been to two Super Bowls and won several playoff games??? BTW against a two time MVP, who may win it again this year!” one fan added.
“Would be extremely smart of him to do that at this point. Wilson is totally cooked at this point,” one fan added.
“Would be BEST MOVE that he has made ALL YEAR!! Justin Fields has all of the things that this OFFENSE needs and the STEELERS NEED JUSTIN to PLAY THE GAME OF HIS LIFE!” a fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see if Starkey’s prediction comes true.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.