The Pittsburgh Steelers may be on the horizon of a quarterback change. As NFL Media notes, the club is planning to give Russell Wilson first-team reps in practice this week, which could put him in line to start on Sunday night against the New York Jets.
"I'll acknowledge that Russ proved his health last week, and we're looking hard at him this week," Tomlin told reporters Tuesday, via NFL.com. "It is up for consideration."
This is a fascinating turn of events for a Pittsburgh team that finds itself 4-2 on the season and tied for first place in the AFC North with Justin Fields as the club's starter through the first six weeks. Given the overall team success with Fields leading the way, a logical question to ask is why Mike Tomlin would even entertain a change under center at the moment? Well, there's some nuance that could point to the reasoning for a swap from Fields to Wilson.
First off, Wilson was Tomlin's original choice to be the team's starter to begin the season. However, after officially being named the starter, a calf injury sidelined Wilson before Week 1, which then thrust Fields into the limelight. So, for the Steelers coaching staff, it may be sticking to a larger plan it had for the offense now that Wilson is back to full strength, and Fields' play over this stretch simply didn't sway its thought process enough to keep the status quo.
While the team is above .500 with Fields and is fresh off a blowout victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, it's been a mixed bag in terms of the quarterback's overall play.
One could point to Fields' accuracy possibly being one of the key motivators in Tomlin looking elsewhere at quarterback. Since his Week 1 showing, when he completed nearly 74% of his passes, Fields's completion percentage has, for the most part, trended downward. Over the past two games, Fields is completing 56.8% of his throws. Meanwhile, of the 31 quarterbacks who have at least 100 pass attempts this season, Fields' off-target throw rate (15.6%) to wide receivers ranks 26th in the league.
He also has the eighth-highest negative play rate (11.9%) among those qualified quarterbacks this season.
So, while it seems like things are cruising with Fields at the helm, when you look under the hood at the team's lack of efficiency throwing the ball, it leaves little to be desired, thus opening the door for Wilson.
