Steelers/NFL
Narrative that Russell Wilson lost the starting job with Saturday’s Performance…….
Major Overreaction of QB Situation: What the Pittsburgh Steelers have brewing is perception wise the honeymoon might already be over for Russell Wilson. And the guy has only practiced fully for one week and appeared in five series of a preseason game. The media, in particular the National Media who are not around every day, continue to push the narrative for Justin Fields to be QB1. Justin Fields is dynamic, one of the best running QB’s you’ll see and there’s no doubt he should have some Slash like packages ready to go week 1. But for every two ‘wow’ moments he provides with his legs and athleticism, there are just as many missed routine plays. Just watch the tape from the Bills QB. Neither QB truly separated things.
Saying Russell Wilson is losing steam on the starting job based off Saturday’s game vs the Bills continues to be agenda driven. The running game and offensive line, notably Broderick Jones were so bad and even in a preseason atmosphere a receiver group that couldn’t get open, it was impossible to even evaluate Wilson who it should be noted was lights out in the ramp up to the Bills game. For coaches in the Steelers building and coaches outside of Pittsburgh, they still don’t see this as a QB competition: Among them is NFL great Bill Belichick: “I think they have bigger problems than at the quarterback position. The defense is, you know, a pretty solid unit,” Belichick said on the Pat McAfee show. “The offensive line had a hard time being consistent there. They lost the tackles. They have a rookie center, and the guards, they’ve had some issues too in the preseason games. They need to get the running game going, they have good backs, they need to get those back started. Russell’s good out of the pocket. But I think the problems are bigger than Russell Wilson. I think it’s really offensive line and the running game.”
Fields is in the best spot where he is right now. He’s made things awkward with a strong camp that’s come along with growing popularity with the fan base and media. However, he’s just much better suited to be the fall-back option to jumpstart the offense if Wilson unravels than being push right into things Week 1 as the starter………..
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Rumblings: If and it’s a Major If……. If Justin Fields was named the starting QB say come Labor Day in what would be a stunning move to many on the inside, word is Pittsburgh would [hide] release Russell Wilson than demote him to #2. An in-season benching would be a different story [/hide] ………….Dan Moore was in line to beat out Broderick Jones for the starting left tackle job and it was going to be Jones not Moore who would be the swing tackle to start the year. The Steelers are 100% locked into Troy Fantanu as the starting right tackle when healthy………After blocking a trade to the Patriots earlier this month, the 49ers gave Aiyuk and his representation a short-window to workout contract parameters with the Steelers and the 49ers brass is said to have been led to believe Aiyuk was ready to move on to Pittsburgh, only for his reps to surprisingly turn around and try to use the Steelers deal as a benchmark for the 49ers to beat and after the 49ers stepped up and beat the offer in GTD, Aiyuk still hasn’t been satisfied to put pen on the paper and the lure of playing for Mike Tomlin is still there despite Pittsburgh’s lower offer. It continues to be one of the stranger things you’ll see and one of the more fascinating things in the Steelers pursuit of Aiyuk this summer is there’s been a change in direction among the hierarchy towards the WR position. They were prepared to pay big money to not only pay Aiyuk at around $26-27 million per season, but Aiyuk acquiring would not impede the organizations desire to lock up To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
