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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH — Russell Wilson will start at quarterback in the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ season opener in Atlanta, coach Mike Tomlin announced Wednesday.
Wilson, who signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in March, entered the offseason in “pole position” for the starting job, according to Tomlin. He retained the spot despite a calf injury that sidelined him throughout the majority of the Steelers’ training camp.
Justin Fields, whom the Steelers acquired from the Chicago Bears in a March trade for a conditional sixth-round pick, will back Wilson up.
Meanwhile, the status of one of the players who would be protecting Wilson in Week 1 might be in question. Steelers starting guard Isaac Seumalo left practice Monday with an apparent pectoral injury and is undergoing tests to determine the severity of the injury, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Though Tomlin said the two were in a competition for the job throughout the preseason, Wilson always appeared to have the edge, including in the final preseason game when he played just five snaps and led the first-team offense to a scoring drive before being taken out.
Fields played 56 snaps in the preseason to Wilson’s 25. Fields completed 19 of 27 attempts for 199 yards and led one scoring drive, while Wilson completed 10 of 12 attempts for 73 yards and led a scoring drive. Fields averaged 8.3 air yards per attempt, while Wilson averaged 5.7.
Wilson last started a game for the Denver Broncos, the Steelers’ Week 2 opponent, in Week 16 of the 2023 season before being benched for Jarrett Stidham in the final two weeks of the season.
Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and a Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks, finished that season with 26 touchdowns to eight interceptions, but he was sacked 45 times. Fields, meanwhile, started 13 games for the Bears last season. He threw 16 touchdowns to nine interceptions and was sacked 44 times.