How worried should the Steelers be about Russell Wilson?

Barry Reeger-USA TODAY Sports

When will Russell Wilson practice, which of the top-paid QBs is best, and … table tennis? 

There will be a football game played this week, and those are the most beautiful words that have existed in quite some time.

It may “only” be the preseason, but when you have been wandering in the desert for basically six months a single Capri Sun feels like a 10-gallon tank.

There is indeed plenty of proverbial water in the NFL content ocean though, as the preseason’s debut means that training camps are in full force. Squads all around the NFL are off and running which means we have plenty to get to.

Welcome to the latest edition of The Skinny Post, where we are starting with whatever the hell is going on with the Pittsburgh Steelers and their quarterback situation.

Are the Steelers going to start Russell Wilson? Do they know?

RJ:

Given that this is the time of year where every team has all sorts of stuff going on there is a tendency to get trapped in the bubble of your own team and only surface for air with regards to the other 31. When you do this you are prone to the occasional headline or two catching you off guard.

This happened to me over the weekend when I saw that Russell Wilson went through mental reps during Steelers practice due to having a calf strain. Our friends at Behind The Steel Curtain thankfully had the full story for me to catch up with:

Sunday marks the team’s fourth training camp practice, and Wilson has yet to do any team work following a calf injury suffered on Wednesday. HC Mike Tomlin noted on Thursday that Wilson is considered “day-to-day” with the injury. In his absence, new quarterback acquisition Justin Fields has been getting first-team reps, with plenty of highlight throws in the mix, though his results in the 7 shots drill have left something to be desired.

I’m not going to act like 2024 Russell Wilson is some unquestioned starter and that the Steelers paid some massive price to get him, but this feels a little funny, no? Or it at least feels like the door of opportunity for Justin Fields may be wider than originally thought.

Again, we are extremely early into training camp but that Russell has yet to do any team work at all is curious, curious indeed (imagine this said in Mr. Olivander’s voice, please).

Michael:

After the Steelers sat through the Kenny Pickett era for a bit too long, I was glad to see them take a smart approach with the position by trying to fix their issue Moneyball-style. They brought in a successful veteran past his prime and a young gun with loads of untapped potential in hopes that, combined, they can form a very competent quarterback.

The early reviews of Fields in camp have been good. There have been some highlights posted to social media in regards to a few pretty deep balls that he’s completed thus far, but we all know that it hasn’t been practices that have kept Fields from being the star many thought he’d be by now. It’s been his performances in games to date. So while it may not look too good for Wilson to be sidelined this long to begin camp, I don’t think he’s all of a sudden losing a ton of ground to Fields in the meantime. Something about Tomlin tells me he’s likely going with the veteran in Wilson to begin the year barring a catastrophic meltdown of some sort.

Now if it’s another week of mental reps for Wilson after the writing of this, then I’d start to wonder a bit more about what’s going on and whether or not things are going anywhere near according to plan.

Which of the NFL’s top 10 quarterback contracts would you prefer to have on your team?

Michael:

A couple quarterbacks from the new guard got paid this past week in Jordan Love and Tua Tagovailoa. Love signed a four-year extension that ties him with Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence as the highest-paid player in NFL history despite coming off just his first year as a full-time starter. This is what happens when you wait to pay your young quarterbacks, though. Other teams will try and race to get the deal done knowing that any deal done before them only drives the price even higher.

So as it stands, the top-10 highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL right now are:

Joe Burrow ($55 million avg/year)
Jordan Love ($55 million)
Trevor Lawrence ($55 million)
Tua Tagovailoa ($53.1 million)
Jared Goff ($53 million)
Justin Herbert ($52.5 million)
Lamar Jackson ($52 million)
Jalen Hurts ($51 million)
Kyler Murray ($46.1 million)
Deshaun Watson ($46 million)

When you look at this list, which player/contract combination would you prefer your team to have on the books? I think I have to go with Lamar Jackson and his deal here. A two-time MVP with only the seventh-highest average per year contract? Sign me up. Jackson is still in the prime of his career and his resume speaks for himself. He’s also done a lot of his best work without a plethora of stars and brand-name players around him. That’s what you want from your cornerstone players.

Like the other contracts in the bottom half of this group, they only get better and better with time since they were inked sooner rather than later. Jackson has a chance to win his third MVP in 2024 and if he does, holy smokes, will his contact numbers get prettier and prettier.

RJ:

More than anything, looking at this list upsets me with how people talk about Dak Prescott. They act like he isn’t worth the numbers that these quarterbacks are. To a larger point it upsets me that people don’t understand how this works. Every one of these deals (basically) was the highest in NFL history in some capacity when it was signed and then the next one came along and changed things. Lather, rinse and repeat.

I think that my partner Michael has things figured out here and that the Lamar Jackson deal feels like the best one, but if I have to zig where he zags I am going to go right to the top and take Joe Burrow.

It seems like (outside of pictures of his new hair) we have sort of forgotten about Burrow. This tends to happen when players get hurt and miss chunks of seasons, but he absolutely belongs in any kind of conversation you want to have around the who’s who of the position.

Takeaways from the Olympics so far

RJ:

I’m actually going to stop and pass the baton back to my friend Michael here because as I understand it he is very into a particular element of the current Olympic games.

Michael:

Alright so the Olympics freakin’ ROCK. It’s always amazing to see the world come together for an event like this and not only do you get to see the USA athletes dominate, you also get to watch a ton of other athletes you’ve never heard of before put on spectacular shows for their respective countries.

Over the weekend, I may have witnessed the most incredible piece of competition of the Olympics thus far. And yes, even more than the USA men’s and women’s swim teams bringing in a handful of gold and silver medals.

The setting: Table tennis.

You heard that right.

It was Ecuador vs. Australia. When I tuned in, Australia had themselves a very comfortable 3-0 lead in games in the best-of-seven series. Normally, this is a situation where you mindlessly change the channel because you know exactly what’s about to happen. But let me tell you, it did NOT go the way anyone would have expected.

The Ecuadorian player hunkered down and took the game one point at a time. In game four, he played smart, fundamental table tennis en route to gaining a lead he’d never relinquish. So cool, he won game four and still faced a 3-1 deficit.

IT. DID. NOT. MATTER.

Ecuador’s Alberto Mino just kept scratching, and clawing, and fighting and taking every single counterpunch to the chin en route to winning FOUR STRAIGHT MATCHES to beat Australia’s Finn Luu 4-3.

For all I care, this man is a literal living legend. He went full LeBron James and the Cavs against the Golden State Warriors. Consider me a new lifelong fan of Mr. Mino.