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 offense requires a base level of mobility to execute.
If Wilson is not healthy enough to carry out the concepts within Smith’s offense, then there needs to be a serious discussion about if he can truly play Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. That is why Fields’s sparkle with his mobility popped even more. Wilson has baseline mobility and can do it, even at 35 years old.
However, playing through a calf strain that still could be limiting him might hurt his stock in the competition more than it helps. That does not mean that Wilson can not become the starter, but any injury that takes away a massive crutch of Wilson’s game, his mobility, is doomed to hurt him significantly if it does not heal properly. Either way, Smith has a small say in who will start Week 1 but does not have the final say.
Instead, those will go to Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and Art Rooney II. “The beauty of my position now, give your opinion. That’s how they figure out,” Smith said.
“Obviously, if Mike does a good job, Omar, Mr. Rooney, you can see it’s collaborative, but having been in that situation, that’s not my decision to make.” Everyone involved knows what makes the offense tick and how Wilson works within the confines of the offense when healthy.
Yet, he still needs to be just that -- fully healthy. Until he is, the Steelers could have a hard time trusting Wilson to take the reins of the offense..
