The Pittsburgh Steelers’ response to the starting quarterback situation didn’t become any clearer during Saturday’s 9-3 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Russell Wilson returned from a calf injury to start this game after missing last week’s pre-season game, but couldn’t get anything going. He came into the game with an opportunity to seize the starting job, but could only get one first down through the air in his five attacks in the game.
Wilson finished the game 8-10 for 47 yards before Justin Fields arrived late in the second quarter.
Justin Berl/Getty Images
Fields, who played the entire second half, also wasn’t able to produce much at quarterback. A 20-yard run from Fields led to the Steelers’ only successful field goal of the day, and he got the team into the red zone but wasn’t able to convert those possessions into touchdowns.
Although Fields eliminated the fumbles that plagued his first preseason appearance for the Steelers the previous week, he was still just 11-17 for 92 yards passing with eight carries for 42-plus yards over an entire half of football.
“It’s still not what we’re looking for,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game, via Coral Smith of NFL.com. “It was better in some areas, but it’s still JV in too many other areas.”
Tomlin added that the blame doesn’t lie solely with the quarterbacks, as the offensive line’s play was inconsistent and the offense as a whole struggled to find a rhythm.
“It’s a bit of an incomplete study because you don’t get a chance to see them play or see us play or see us establish a rhythm and a personality when you’re not winning possession,” Tomlin said. “And that wasn’t the case. The first three series of the game, it was three and out, and you’re not going to get a chance to establish a rhythm or play the way you want to as an individual or a team.”
The Steelers brought in Wilson and Fields this offseason to battle for the starting quarterback job after both players were waived from their previous stops. Wilson was released from the Denver Broncos after two mediocre seasons with the team in which the offense ranked last in points per game in 2022 and 26th in total yards last season.
He signed a one-year contract with the Steelers in March.
More news: Steelers’ Mike Tomlin still not ready to name Russell Wilson as starter
A day after the Steelers signed Wilson, they traded Fields from the Chicago Bears. Fields spent three years with the Bears, where he showed flashes of potential as a passer and especially as a runner. He rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2022 and helped the Bears win four of their final six games last season, but he has yet to find consistency and hasn’t solved his turnover issues.
Fields has turned the ball over 38 times in his career and has lost 11 of them. He also has a 4-3 TD-INT ratio in his career so far.
Both quarterbacks will play one more preseason game against the Detroit Lions next Saturday, when the team hopes to see one of them emerge as a starter.
