Could this be the year that puts a stop to the Steelers’ nearly 2-decade winning season run? After watching two preseason games, Steel City fans might not be convinced with their offense. In fact, it feels like the team took 10 steps forward to improve the offense but is back at square one after watching Russell Wilson perform.

Does this change Mike Tomlin’s opinion about Russ holding on to the “pole position”? After all, he’s been making the same choices as Steelers ex-QBs like Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph, all of whom are out of the door now. More so, would this pave the way for Justin Fields to get the starter job somewhere down the line? James Jones of SPEAK thinks so.

“What Justin Fields brings you is lightning in a bottle,” said James Jones. “It could lead to some mistakes, but your offense looks way more explosive with him out there. I understand they only scored 3 points but that was by choice because he [Fields] got them down there in the red zone twice and they decided to go for it on fourth down trying to get some touchdowns. In a regular game, that’s 9 points. Russell Wilson never got down there into the red zone and the offense never really looked explosive.”

Russell Wilson might get the tag of “dual-threat QB” snatched from him real soon. Justin Fields rushed for 42 yards over 8 carries, however, he didn’t score a touchdown on any of those. He did get a first down with his legs toward the end of the first half of the game against the Bills. His pass completion rate on the run is still a question mark, though.

In the 2022 season when Fields was playing for the Chicago Bears, he recorded 1,143 rushing yards and 8 rushing touchdowns. Hence, his track record shows that he has a knack for “explosiveness” but it’s a matter of Mike Tomlin allowing such plays to go down in his offensive scheme. Just like the Steelers, the Bears caught a “lightning in a bottle” with Fields and it became clear in his 2022 season.

“What Fields did in 2022 was a matter of making the most out of a less-than-ideal situation. The Bears lacked weapons offensively and struggled because of it, but Fields often kept them afloat otherwise. His ability to create positive gains with his legs only makes him more dangerous, and unless Chicago confines him to the pocket indefinitely, it’s safe to expect he’ll end up on this list again a year from now,” is what Nick Shook of NFL thought of Fields 2022 season.

Fields revitalized his past while trying to make the best of situational football conundrums that he faced throughout the Bills game, though he couldn’t get a touchdown. Passing-wise, he went 11 for 17 over 92 yards. While his explosiveness is not in question, his accuracy when pressured takes a huge dip. He can break out of tackles and run but cannot throw accurate balls when he sees a blitz coming.

That brings us to Russell Wilson, who had less than an ideal game against the Buffalo Bills. SPEAK’s James Jones got the premonition that he might repeat the same things as his Steelers predecessors like Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph.

James Jones thinks the Steelers took a step back with Russell Wilson

The veteran completed 8 of his 10 passes over 47 yards. Now these stats tell an intriguing story about Russell Wilson. His stats amount to 6 yards per attempt which means that he’s focused on throwing short passes over long ones, but that’s just how NFL offense is these days. But that’s not really the issue here. The real issue is the Steelers’ 2023 past resurfacing.

“I do think what Russell Wilson put on tape, we’ve seen the Steelers quarterback put on tape before,” said the former NFL receiver James Jones. “What I mean by that is, zero explosiveness, the offense doesn’t look that explosive. A lot of checkdowns, right, and took a lot of sacks not mobile getting outside the pocket. We’ve seen that from Kenny Pickett, we’ve seen that from Mitch Trubisky, we’ve seen that from Mason Rudolph, we’ve seen that from those dudes.”

But it is not the problem with Russell Wilson that the Steelers need to pay heed to. It’s their O-Line that failed to protect Russell Wilson. We saw the Bills defense penetrate the O-Line almost whenever Wilson had the ball. Fans and analysts used to point how his habit of holding on to the ball for long, but he didn’t do that in this game. However, he did hand a lot of check-downs to Najee Harris in the game.

Mike Tomlin is still not sure what to make of this mess. He thinks it’s an “incomplete study” and has to take more things like the O-Line into account before making any decisions about Wilson. But is he really as bad as Mitch Trubisky, or Mason Rudolph, or Kenny Pickett? Pickett was sacked 23 times in 12 games in 2023, Rudolph played 4 games and was sacked 6 times and Trubisky played 5 games and was sacked 7 times. The Steelers team went against their former QB Trubisky in the Bills game where he was sacked twice. It was an inherent problem with Trubisky, that still managed to drag itself to Bill’s offense.

Is Russell Wilson that bad? Surely not. What do you think about his Steelers debut? Let us know in the comments.