The Steelers' QB Problem With Russell Wilson and Justin Fields Is One of Vision

If you try to cobble things together at football's most important position, it is going to bite you in the rear end at some point in time.

This is the issue facing Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers as they head into the 2024 NFL season. With Russell Wilson and Justin Fields as his two competing quarterbacks, Tomlin knows that he's going to have to hope for the best. Wilson is the erstwhile veteran who has made his way in the NFL in his own unique fashion, while Fields is the developmental guy with tools that are off the charts.

Few of the positives for either quarterback showed up in Pittsburgh's 9-3 Saturday preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills. Wilson started, completing eight of 10 passes for 47 yards, no touchdowns (obviously), no interceptions, three sacks, and a passer rating of 86.2. Fields in relief completed 11 of 17 passes for 92 yards, one sack, and a passer rating of 78.6.

When your two quarterbacks combine for 139 yards through the air, and you have a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith who was hired this offseason to put the whole thing together, that's not going to make Tomlin happy. And coming after a Week 1 preseason loss to the Houston Texans in which Fields and Kyle Allen failed to do much, it's fair to say the Steelers may have the same kind of quarterback issues they've had since Ben Roethlisberger's salad days.

"Still not winning enough possession downs on offense, particularly early, in an effort to establish rhythm in game plays and develop personality and so forth," Tomlin said of the offense after the Bills loss. "When you're not winning possession downs in the early portions of the game, all of those things really get stymied."

Based on the tape, the issue at this point in time seems to be the schematic opportunities Pittsburgh's quarterbacks are given — and are not taking. We could say that the Steelers' vision for their quarterback room was fundamentally flawed in the larger sense, and vision is the thing that's not working when it's time to execute the plan.

Russell Wilson was caught short of the sticks

This was Wilson's first on-field time with the team, so it makes sense that Smith wanted to get Wilson in a rhythm to start. Wilson's first four passes were short and simple, aided by pre-snap motion and receiver deployment to make the openings easy. Then, there was a quick outside stop throw to Calvin Austin out of empty that was voided by cornerback Christian Benford, who was squatting on anything underneath.

This should have been the sign for Smith to start challenging the Bills vertically... and it was. With 10:06 left in the first half, Smith gave Wilson a two-man backside route combination designed to get his best tight end open, based on the Bills' tendency to play the routes underneath. For whatever reason, Wilson didn't take it — which was disconcerting, because the read was easy based on the coverage.

And with 8:06 left in the first half, Wilson chose to throw the backside deep fade to George Pickens when Austin had inside leverage on the easier vertical route. Pickens was called out of bounds, which is debatable, but you still wonder what the process might have been.

Justin Fields: Born to run?

As for Fields, he was set to benefit from similar defensive aggressiveness, but he missed some shots out of that as well. His 20-yard scramble near the end of the first half was a highlight play, but when you look at the overhead view and see what he may have given up for that run, it's somewhat disconcerting. Linebacker Deion Jones was the conflict defender — he had to balance his coverage efforts between Calvin Austin on the backside slot post, and running back La'Mical Perine's release route. When Jones went flat-footed underneath to Perine, Fields had the time and the clean pocket to hit Austin, but he didn't.

Then, with 7:48 left in the third quarter, and third-and-7 from his own 39-yard line, Fields turned down receiver Quez Watkins on the backside vertical route when he had two other targets — tight end MyCole Pruitt and receiver Scotty Miller — running mirrored stop routes to get Watkins open downfield. Given the extent to which Buffalo's defense bit on the underneath stuff in Cover-2, the eight-yard completion to Pruitt was sensible... but reductive.

Protection was a problem

Much has been made of the Steelers' relative inability to protect their quarterbacks, and it's something Tomlin brought up after the Bills game.

"I thought we didn't do a good enough job of protecting the quarterback," the coach said. "We've got to do a better job in pass protection than we did, not only in possession downs, but just in general.

"I was really up front with the group about it in that regard. That can't be a problem for us. We've got to be better than we were tonight in that area."

Right tackle Broderick Jones had specific and notable issues.

The first two of Wilson's three sacks were on plays in which the running back stayed in to protect. On the third sack, the Steelers had the numerical advantage, and it just didn't matter. Wilson is a quarterback who will sack himself more than you'd like; he doesn't need this much help from his front five.

The Steelers can probably get away with this, but to what end?

Over the last few seasons, the Steelers are the all-time champions of extracting winning records from negative point differentials in a season. They've amazingly accomplished this "feat" in each of their last three seasons. It's added clout to Tomlin's ongoing mark of never suffering through a losing season in 17 seasons as the team's head coach. But it also ended their seasons with wild-card defeats in 2021 and 2023, and no playoff appearance at all in 2022.

This is not a sustainable recipe for success.

But the 2024 Steelers may have decided that it is, and perhaps they'll be able to lean on their defense and Tomlin's brilliant motivational tactics to do it again. You'd almost wonder if one season in which the offense completely bottomed out would be the best possible medicine, because then, the franchise would have to realize that going half a decade with no true answer at quarterback is a long time in purgatory... and nothing else.

Maybe Russell Wilson or Justin Fields can find a way out, but initial reads are as murky upon review as they appear to be for the Steelers' quarterbacks when they're on the field.

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