Tim Benz: Steelers need more than just Russell Wilson to fix the passing game

During Tuesday’s press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin suggested that the door is being left open for Russell Wilson to start Sunday night’s game at quarterback against the New York Jets instead of Justin Fields.

“We’re looking hard at it this week,” Tomlin said of starting Wilson.

Fields has won four of the team’s first six games as a starter. While he’s been good running the football (231 yards and five touchdowns), the Steelers are the 28th-ranked passing offense in the NFL at 166 yards per game.

Tomlin must think that there is more to be gained in that area of the offense with Wilson throwing instead of Fields.

“We’ve been really good at times, but not to be confused with great,” Tomlin said. “We are trying to position ourselves to be that team. We have a player with talent who hasn’t had an opportunity to play. So we are going to potentially explore those things. Sometimes it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what Justin has done or has not done.”

Maybe we’ll find out that a quarterback change to Wilson is all that’s needed to spark the passing game’s output.

Or maybe we’ll learn that it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is when it comes to throwing the ball in Pittsburgh this year. Maybe Wilson can’t get much more out of an inconsistent George Pickens and a bunch of afterthoughts at wide receiver on the depth chart with him.

“At times, we have gotten open. At times, we haven’t,” Tomlin said of the team’s pass catchers. “That’s just a function of football. Say what you will about that.”

Oh, I have. And now that Las Vegas’ Davante Adams is becoming a New York Jet instead of a Steeler, I’m sure we’ll all be saying a lot more.

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Then there is the offensive line. Injuries have already subtracted Troy Fautanu, Nate Herbig and James Daniels from that position group for the season. Zach Frazier is going to miss at least this week. Isaac Seumalo spent the first four weeks injured, and Broderick Jones is going through a sophomore slump at right tackle.

It’s fair to wonder if this is a bad week to potentially bench one of the top scrambling quarterbacks in the NFL for a 35-year-old QB who is coming off a calf injury after absorbing 100 sacks the previous two seasons.

“We haven’t had a healthy offensive line group at any component of this journey that is the 2024 season. We aren’t holding our breath for that,” Tomlin said.

Part of the calculus for this week also better be that Wilson will be going in cold against a Jets defense that is second in the NFL when it comes to passing yards allowed per game (148.8). New York also has 20 sacks, tied for third-best in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.

If Wilson starts, he will have to “get on a moving train” with the passing game as Tomlin likes to say. Unfortunately, that train may be forced off the tracks this week regardless of who the conductor is.

I’d stick with Fields for at least one more week, especially since they’ll be facing the Jets’ defense this Sunday. However, Tomlin left many at Tuesday’s press conference feeling like he is going to go in the other direction.

I asked Tomlin if the starting QB role is truly going to be determined based on a competition in practice this week between Wilson and Fields — or is the competition simply between Wilson and his own level of readiness.

“I hadn’t thought about it in that way,” Tomlin replied. “Really, we are just going to roll the ball out and let both guys work and make decisions from there.”

My guess is that the decision has been made already. For Tomlin’s sake, if that decision is starting Wilson and benching Fields, it better be the right one.

If he’s wrong, the Jets are exactly the kind of team on defense that could highlight the error of that judgment.

Then, we might be having the same conversation at this time next week.