It’s felt evident for a few years now that Russell Wilson has entered the twilight of his NFL career. But you know what? Sundown in South Florida sure can be spectacular.
If not exactly a split-screen moment Sunday afternoon, it still wasn’t hard to miss Russ yet again dressed out in his role as the emergency quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who improved to 3-0 with Justin Fields taking the snaps … while, on the other side of the country, the Miami Dolphins were getting clubbed for the second straight week courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson’s former team.
You can already see the dots connecting here.
Wilson’s calf injury has effectively given the Steelers cover to start Fields without repercussion. But as the 25-year-old gets increasingly acclimated to an offense that fits his skill set nicely and continues to produce incrementally better personal and collective results (including a passing and rushing TD in Sunday’s victory), the Steelers will surely have to anoint him with the QB1 label at some point – and that was the sensible conclusion all along given Fields and Wilson, 35, are both headed for free agency in 2025, but only one of them was a logical candidate for a long-term marriage.
And it feels like even sometimes brusque Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin is starting to fall for Fields.
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“He’s doing a good job doing what we’re asking him to do, playing and playing to win,” he said after Sunday’s 20-10 defeat of the previously unbeaten Los Angeles Chargers, “and so that’s appreciated.”
Yet what might also be nicely appreciating is Wilson’s value.
The 2024 season is only three weeks old, but several teams already seem to be entering the throes of a quarterback crisis – the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans potential examples, though they can materialize instantaneously anywhere in the league at any time.
And that brings us to the Dolphins.
A playoff team during the first two years of coach Mike McDaniel’s tenure, the Fins have sunk copious amounts of money into a roster – which has been forced into risky cost cutting in some areas – in a bid to contend now, most notably the four-year, $212.4 million extension ($167.2 million guaranteed) granted to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in July. Of course, now on injured reserve after his latest concussion, he won’t be eligible to play again until Oct. 27 – at the earliest and assuming his neurological outlook and family support his return.
The Dolphins were embarrassed 24-3 in Seattle on Sunday – they’ve lost their last two games by a collective 55-13 – and saw backup quarterback Skylar Thompson knocked out of the lineup with a chest injury, not that he was particularly effective beforehand. Journeyman Tim Boyle, fresh off the practice squad, mopped up.
Asked about his 1-2 team’s next steps, McDaniel replied: “I think you have to look at everything. And you have to find a way to give your team a best chance to win.
“We have to find a way to get better collectively.”
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When viewing the predicament of the 2024 Dolphins, the specter of the 2023 New York Jets should be a warning – maybe with Boyle himself tripping a call to action after three dreadful appearances for the NYJ last season. Remember, those Jets basically hoped they were talented enough to hang on for Aaron Rodgers to make a farfetched return from his Week 1 Achilles tear. In the interim, talented playmakers like WR Garrett Wilson and RB Breece Hall toiled for a hamstrung attack while the defense shouldered an inordinate burden.
You can already see similar issues surfacing for Miami, where WRs Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and RB De’Von Achane are quickly turning into hood ornaments.
“(W)e have a real good team, and we’ve got some great leaders who are keeping everybody together,” Hill said Sunday.
“We’ll have a captains meeting on what needs to be changed and be back to the drawing board Monday night.”
If only there were a veteran passer with extensive postseason experience who was available, one playing for the veteran’s minimum on an expiring contract – preferably with a career completion rate near 65% who tends to safeguard the ball … and might even be more willing than ever to follow a coach’s playbook to the X and O given his recent experience with coach Sean Payton and increasingly tenuous footing as a perceived starter in this league.
Oh, wait.
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Is Wilson a declining player, especially as it pertains to his mobility? Yes. Is it fair to say he’s probably less accurate and decisive when compared to Tagovailoa? Yep. But, despite Payton’s dissatisfaction in Denver, Wilson did exhibit with the Broncos in 2023 that he can still be a quality NFL starter (26 TD passes, 98.0 QB rating) who knows distributing the ball to playmakers might lead to the best version of himself. And he’s clearly desperate to win amid a quest to add another Lombardi Trophy to his recently tarnished legacy.
Wilson has repeatedly contended his calf is just about ready for action. Naturally, that prompts the question: Should the Steelers just keep him as an insurance policy behind Fields?
As of Sunday night, Pittsburgh was one of four 3-0 teams and was at least two games clear of the field in the AFC North. And this is a franchise that has seen the value of, say, a Charlie Batch, who could capably carry a team for a month when the starting quarterback was down.
Wilson might be Batch-plus, but Fields isn’t Terry Bradshaw or Ben Roethlisberger – not yet, maybe not ever. And, unbeaten or not, this doesn’t quite feel like a squad on the precipice of the city’s long-awaited Stairway to Seven, which would be the most Super Bowls ever won by a franchise.
Divesting Wilson for, say, a mid-round draft pick could mean filling a crucial slot on the depth chart in the future or providing the final piece of currency that consummates a deal in the pursuit of the next quarterback if it winds up not being Fields – especially at a point when it’s obvious the Steelers won’t be organically be drafting in the top five. A trade also eliminates what’s bound to eventually become a distraction for Tomlin.
The Steelers might be standouts in the context of what’s become typical early season NFL mediocrity, albeit a group headed in a decidedly positive direction. The Dolphins might actually have more upside over the course of the 2024 campaign – but maybe only if they pursue a short-term solution like Wilson. Yet Miami might also need him as a suspension bridge if Tagovailoa is out for an indefinite period – particularly given the difficulty the Fins would have trying to reset themselves into the market for a younger quarterback, whether in the draft or in free agency.
And just maybe such a change of address would permit Russ to ride – “Let’s ride!” – into a sunset more to his liking than the current reality of riding the pine in the 11th hour of his distinguished career.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.
