ATLANTA -- Even the most full-blown of NFL rebuilds might as well begin and end with finding a franchise quarterback. Because if there's no one like that in the fold, no one of a fitting pedigree not just for the present but also for the foreseeable future, there's no hope.
No real hope, anyway.
Well, my friends, when the 92nd edition of the Pittsburgh Professional Football Club kicks off on this Sunday -- 1:02 p.m. against the Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- it'll represent, as I see it, the first time any player who's met that potential definition will be standing behind center since Ben Roethlisberger.
Because it won't be Russell Wilson, who'll turn 36 in November and who's watched much of the summer's activity at Saint Vincent and on the South Side.
It'll be this beyond-dynamic dude:
ABSOLUTE DOT π―
β Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 18, 2024
π² Stream on NFL+: https://t.co/iu7bDTXJ4C pic.twitter.com/RK2UIo9pVN
Yeah, Justin Fields is a decade younger. Yeah, he and/or his center put the ball on the ground three times in the preseason. Yeah, he brought three years of baggage from the Bears to go with all his many highlights in Chicago.
But he's 25, he's barely scratched the surface of the average starting quarterback's career and, in addition to being so spectacularly gifted he's capable of creating sequences like the one above routinely, if we're all being real, he'd already have been embraced by our city and the Steelers' farther-reaching fandom as exactly what's been missing since Ben's retirement. As the No. 11 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, as the teenager Mike Tomlin treated like a buddy at Ohio State's pro day, as someone who went 20-2 there with back-to-back College Football Playoff berths, he'd have been hailed as an arriving hero.
So, what's the knock?
That he couldn't win with the Bears?
No one's done that since Jim McMahon, for crying out loud.
That he turned the ball over too often?
He did, but show me one deficiency that I'd most want to have in a young quarterback, and I'd always choose one that I'd see as fixable.
That he can't read NFL defenses?
Maybe he can't, but I'll be damned if he'll be any better at it by spending most or all of 2024 on the sideline.
Look, I don't know what to make of the coming season, and I hate predictions, anyway. But between the uncertainty at quarterback, the glaring youth on the offensive line, the lack of wide receiver depth below George Pickens and even a few doubts within what should be a fast, fun defense -- I'll feel better about that side if/when I see undrafted rookie Beanie Bishop survive a Sunday as the starting slot corner -- I'm not envisioning a visit to New Orleans in February. And I might not even be envisioning a playoff victory.
I get not wanting to go the whole rebuild. There's too much T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward in place for that. I also get, to repeat, that rebuilds of that scale are seldom necessary in a salary-capped, parity-defined league, one that offers all 32 teams all kinds of volume through free agency, plus immediate help through the college-fed draft.
But I also get that there's a difference between saying every summer, as Art Rooney, Omar Khan and Mike Tomlin do, that the goal that season's the Super Bowl ... and not all-the-way addressing the one position that's best equipped to make that happen.
Let the kid play. Not just today.
β’ Not going to lie: I'm looking forward to covering this, way more now than when Wilson was to start. I'm tired of the same old approach, the same old results.
β’ Don't forget that Ben didn't get a chance till Tommy Maddox went down. Also, Ben had many issues he'd overcome, not least of which was really, really struggling in his first Super Bowl.
β’ Most of Fields' best balls all summer were across the middle. Wilson led the NFL in passes behind the line of scrimmage with the Broncos last season. Once more with gusto: Tired of the same old approach. A team doesn't commit $48.4 million to a Pat Freiermuth to try to keep Matt Canada's memory alive. When the play isn't on the ground, it needs to go places that'll keep the Atlanta linebackers and safeties back where they belong.
β’ Lots and lots of running today. Early and often. Even if it doesn't go smoothly at the start. That's both my expectation and wish.
β’ It's also my one and only reason for not fretting about the blocking. They've told me for months they're eager to run-block, and several of them reiterated that for me this week. Wonderful. Lock eyes on the opponent, beat him and head back to the huddle. The end.
β’ It'd be a blast to be buoyant about this defense. It's got much bigger capability, I'd say, than most seem to realize, and I feel that much stronger on this subject after a good talk a couple days ago with Minkah Fitzpatrick, who'll be back to being the biggest X factor in chasing splash in the backfield. But man, there's just been so little seen of this bunch as a unit that I can't quite cross that border. T.J., Cam, Minkah and Alex Highsmith hardly stepped onto the field in the preseason. That's forcing practices to do a lot of lifting.
β’ If Fields wins, unless he's cataclysmic in the process, he's got to keep starting. Think Mason Rudolph. This isn't any different. The Steelers need to amass as many Ws as they can early in the schedule, if only for what's coming later.
β’ All the latest on Wilson's injury. He'll be inactive today, with Kyle Allen backing up.
β’ Can't recommend enough our weekly Next Opponent analysis by Chris Halicke, this one preparing readers for the new-look Falcons facing their old coach.
β’ I'll be writing one of these columns on every gameday. They'll be last-minute thoughts, nothing too expansive, just some stuff I'll have swimming through my head as kickoff approaches.
β’ Thanks for reading my football coverage. Chris and I'll be everywhere the Steelers are and, in addition to our written coverage, we'll venture to whip up on-location videos before and after each game:
