PITTSBURGH -- Nearly a month after suffering a calf injury during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp conditioning test, and it appears that quarterback Russell Wilson is still not 100 percent healthy. Wilson did not move much against the Buffalo Bills, instead opting to sit in the pocket and play with a limited menu. On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith outright admitted that Wilson did not have the same ability as Justin Fields to run similar plays.
All of that comes to the fact that the calf injury is likely hampering him. So, what does that mean? Wilson is not running any bootleg or rollout concepts, which is vital to Smith’s outside zone play-action scheme. With the Steelers offensive line struggling, Smith was unable to change the launch points for plays with Wilson injured.
More than anything, Wilson’s style of backyard football , where he can move out of structure and create magic, is neutralized. "I give Russ a lot of credit for going out there. I think a lot of guys in that situation may have tapped out.
He hadn’t had enough reps. He wanted to go out there,” Smith said. “Internally, we limited him.
Just some of the schemes we were trying to do. It didn’t go clearly the way we wanted it to. So there were some things that I didn’t call for him that I did call for Justin.
I think you could see that whether you’re sitting in the stands or looking at the tape. But you’re trying to get at least conceptually similar concepts.” The Smith o.