Tim Benz: If Mike Tomlin is going to stick with Justin Fields, 2 things must happen

If Mike Tomlin is going to stick with Justin Fields as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback, then he needs to do two things this week.

First of all, he has to finally officially name Fields the starter.

Tuesday at his press conference Tomlin needs to simply say, “ Justin Fields will be our starting quarterback Sunday night against the New York Jets. ” Move him up the depth chart accordingly too. Move Russell Wilson to No. 2, and declare that there are football reasons for the decision.

Tomlin should say that he is doing so because Fields has won four out of six games. That Fields’ ability to run the football has been the most consistently good thing about this offense. That his elite mobility in the pocket to keep plays alive is crucial given the massive amount of injuries along the offensive line. That his touchdown to interception ratio of 10:1 (rushing and passing) has been an important element of the team’s success this season.

In other words, stop making this about Wilson’s calf injury — because it probably hasn’t been for quite some time.

In advance of the Week 2 game in Denver, Wilson stated that he and Tomlin were talking about him playing the opener in Atlanta as late as Sunday morning. Prior to the Atlanta game, Tomlin was asked about his concern about the extent of Wilson tweaking the training camp injury in practice that week, and he said, “None.”

Yet, as recently as last week’s press conference, Tomlin was still publicly making the quarterback decision primarily about Wilson’s health. Has Wilson been too hurt to play this whole time, or just less than 100%? If Fields had been awful, and the team got off to an 0-3 start instead of 3-0, would we still be having this conversation?

Tomlin and the training staff needed to see Wilson respond to back-to-back practice days for the first time. So, Wilson did that. The veteran dressed as the No. 2 QB on Sunday in Las Vegas for the first time. He was healthy enough to play if needed.

Hence, this decision is no longer primarily about Wilson’s calf. I’d venture to guess it hasn’t been since the start of Week 2.

Now, for sure, it isn’t.

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Tomlin may have been steering into the injury angle of the conversation more heavily than he needed to as a way to protect Wilson having to admit to himself and the public that he somehow managed to lose the starting job without even playing a meaningful down.

However, if Tomlin keeps trying to work that angle, it’s unfair to Fields. If Fields is starting this week, just say he is starting this week. That doesn’t mean he’s starting forever. That doesn’t mean Fields even has to be the starter in two weeks against the New York Giants. It just means he is starting Sunday against the New York Jets.

Back on Sept. 24, the Tuesday before the Indianapolis Colts game, Tomlin said this about the quarterback situation after previously outlining that Wilson was still not healthy enough for a full week of practice as the No. 1 quarterback.

“Sometimes in this business, there’s a myriad of complex decisions that need to be made,” Tomlin said. “I’ve learned to make them when it’s appropriate. It’s not necessary as we sit here right now. When Russ gets to an appropriate point of health and we have a decision to make, I’ll make it, and I’ll announce it, and I’ll be really transparent about it.”

Well, that time is now. If Wilson was dressed as the No. 2 on Sunday and made it through a full week of practice, the sand has run through the hourglass when it comes to avoiding making a declaration between two healthy enough QBs at this point. After all, coaches are very fond of telling us after more than a month of NFL competition, “ Who truly is 100% healthy at this point? ”

Second, not only does Tomlin have to actually proclaim Fields as the starter, he and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith have to begin treating him that way.

Fields has to be given the full menu of passing plays. He has to be given authority at the line of scrimmage to check into and out of plays. Not just checking from one run play into another. If he is at the line of scrimmage and sees the opportunity for a pass play that is going to work, Fields has to have the green light to check into that.

“If we have a run play call, then we’re going to stick with that play call,” Fields said before the loss to the Cowboys two weeks ago. “One thing I’m not going to do is — our offense doesn’t roll like that. I put my full trust in Arthur to get us in the right play at the right time. So whatever he calls, I’m going to roll with.”

That could be part of the reason why the Steelers run game is slamming into a wall at the line of scrimmage so often. If Fields isn’t empowered to get out of a bad look, perhaps that partially explains why Najee Harris was only averaging 1.4 yards before first contact (83rd in the NFL) prior to his breakout game against the Raiders on Sunday.

If Smith doesn’t want to empower Fields to that extent, and Tomlin feels uncomfortable making an elevation of Fields public, then those two should probably ask themselves why they don’t switch to Wilson in the first place.