No sooner had the Steelers' training camp begun than Russell Wilson, who typically does not get injured, suffered a calf injury and missed a lot of it. The injury resulted in Justin Fields taking many of the first team snaps in training camp in Wilson's absence.
Wilson's injury led to massive media speculation that, given how Fields looked in training camp, he could be in danger of losing his starting role. The thought of Wilson losing his starting role seemed a bit far-fetched, but that's why staying healthy in training camp is crucial.
The Steelers finally took to the field on Friday night for their first preseason action of the year against the Texans. While reporters in the media may have had some punch-drunk love with Justin Fields in training camp ahead of the preseason game, the game against the Texans was a crucial opportunity for Fields to showcase his skills. However, his overall performance indicates that Fields is nowhere near taking the starting job from Russell Wilson yet.
How did Fields perform against the Texans
To say that Justin Fields had a bad game would not be sincere. We did see some good play from Fields. On his first drive, he had a nice screen pass to Najee Harris for 16 yards and two first-down completions to George Pickens, which were the big highlights of the three series in which he ran the offense.
However, a few negatives might lead Mike Tomlin to lean toward Russell Wilson when the season opens. Fields did have two fumbles on two separate series in the snap from center Nate Herbig. We can't say whether Herbig or Fields caused the fumbles, but the fact they happened did help Fields win any favors from Mike Tomlin.
Then, in the three series he played, he could not get the Steelers' offense into the red zone, which was a slight disappointment. That said, he could have possibly led the Steelers to a touchdown on his third series if Mike Tomlin had challenged the out-of-bounds pass to George Pickens, who clearly got both feet in bounds. If that had been a regular season game, Tomlin would have challenged it, but it's preseason, and perhaps he wanted to see how Fields responded by not challenging it.
While Fields did have some highs and lows, there is a lot to look forward to with him on the Steelers. However, his overall performance still leaves some of us wanting to see a bit of Russell in the preseason first to get a sense of whether he is still playing at the level he has throughout his career.
Anyone on the Fields bandwagon during the early part of training camp should temper their expectations of Fields winning the starting job. Ultimately, he could still be the Steeler's future, but his time in that role has yet to come.