I feel very confident in saying that Russell Wilson will get the nod at Quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week One. What I’m less confident in is his ability to take care of the football and the same goes for Justin Fields.
While both of these men have proven ability, they also possess a ‘knack’ for taking bad sacks, throwing bad interceptions and putting the ball on the ground. None of those things are good and they are even less good when they lead a team that plans to win close games with running the ball and defense.
For those that don’t know, Wilson has been sacked 527 teams in his NFL career. He’s looking up at just four other guys. Fran Tarkenton, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers. He would need to be sacked 43 times to tie Tarkenton for the dubious top spot but don’t laugh, it’s possible. Eight times in his 12 year career, Wilson has been sacked 43 times or more in a season. Two of those eight came in his two seasons at Denver (45 and 55 times).
Wilson has also put the ball on the ground 103 times including 16 times in his two seasons in the Mile High City. That equates to about one fumble every other game for Wilson.
Fields has of course only been around for three prior seasons. Unfortunately his numbers are on pace for some rather forgetful marks. While playing for the Bears, Fields was sacked 135 times in 40 career games. Yes, it is totally fair to blame some of that on a really poor offensive line in Chicago but many of these were also on Fields. That’s an average of 3.475 sacks per game.
When you look at the fumble numbers it gets even scarier. In his 40 career games (38 starts) he has put the ball in the dirt 38 times. I don’t do ‘maths’ very well but that looks like one fumble per start.
Taking care of the ball also means not throwing it to the guys in the other jerseys. For his part, Wilson has thrown 106 picks in his 12 year career. For 188 career games, that breaks down to about .563 INT per game. In his last two seasons, Wilson accounted for 11 interceptions in 2022 and eight in 2023.
Fields on the other hand has thrown 30 interceptions in three seasons, or 40 career games. That breaks down to .75 INT per game.
Statistics such as those I’ve presented only tell one side of the story. Remember that Wilson’s early days were built around a dominating running game and tremendous defense. He rarely had to win games on his own. The complete opposite is true of Fields during his three seasons along Lake Michigan.
While the Bears’ defense was largely ‘acceptable,’ their offense was just not very good. The offensive line was a mess and the weapons that Fields had around him were not to the level of what Wilson had in Seattle.
Where all of this is going is quite simple; whether it’s Russell Wilson or Justin Fields, they have to take care of the football. Sacks are bad enough but compounding the issue by putting the ball on the turf or throwing the ball into coverage just isn’t going to help Mike Tomlin’s Steelers.
When you’re trying to win rock fights every week, hitting yourself over the head with one hurts.
Stats courtesy pro-football-reference.com.
