The Pittsburgh Steelers were back on the practice field for their 11th session of training camp and we finally saw a significant step forward in Russell Wilson's workload.
Wilson did more during the session than he has at any point in training camp as he's been working his way back from a calf injury. According to The Athletic's Mike DeFabo, he worked in seven shots and took seven snaps in 11-on-11.
Previously, Wilson hadn't competed at all in seven shots, and the snaps in 11-on-11 were his most of training camp. To compare, Justin Fields took two snaps in seven shots and 15 reps in 11-on-11, while Wilson saw four and seven, respectively.
Also per DeFabo, Wilson rotated first-team reps with Fields during seven shots and the former's unit scored on 3-of-4 tries, with the highlight being a touchdown pass to George Pickens on a fade. The other two scores were handoffs.
Meanwhile, Fields' unit did not score.
🚨 Russell Wilson is participating in Seven Shots for the first time in camp. 🚨
— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) August 6, 2024
He basically rotated first-team reps with Fields. After Wilson hit Pickens, a Steelers staffer screamed “Your first touchdown pass as a Steeler!” pic.twitter.com/zefMFRoq1D
Wilson has long been considered the favorite for the Steelers' starting job, but his injury gave Fields more daylight than he otherwise would've had, and Fields no doubt made the most of his opportunity.
However, all this hoopla about Fields possibly supplanting Wilson was completely overblown, and largely driven by the media.
The fact of the matter is, it was not possible to make such a determination because we hadn't seen the two signal-callers side-by-side. Now that we'll be seeing more of that, things will really pick up in the competition between the two.
