Is Wilson able to recapture his postseason magic?
In a little more than one week, the Steelers will head to Latrobe to open their training camp at Saint Vincent College and we’ll begin to get the answers to many questions about this team.
Leading those would be what new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s offense will look like, who the “No. 2” receiver will be and can Russell Wilson hold off Justin Fields for the starting quarterback job?
Actually, that third question is probably the easiest to answer.
All offseason, whomever has been asked about the quarterback job has parroted head coach Mike Tomlin, who said at the NFL meetings this spring that Wilson had “pole position.”
At this point, you can read “pole position” to mean that Wilson will be the Steelers’ starting quarterback. In fact, it would be hard to imagine, barring injury, a situation in which Wilson doesn’t get the nod to start the season.
Remember, Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick were calling Wilson prior to his signing with the Steelers, trying to recruit him to the team. And the Steelers didn’t have any plans at that time of trading for Fields. That only happened after Kenny Pickett balked at taking a backseat to Wilson.
The next question is whether Wilson will be good enough to help the Steelers not only get into the playoffs, but win in the postseason.
Wilson has a 9-7 record in postseason games. That doesn’t sound great until you realize that his nine playoff wins are tied for eighth-most on the NFL’s all-time list. They’re also fourth-most among active quarterbacks.
And knowing how to win, or perhaps equally important, how to not lose playoff games, is a big deal.
Of current NFL starters, Wilson is one of only five who own a winning record in the postseason. The others are Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy and Aaron Rodgers. And Rodgers is 11-10 in his postseason career.
Wilson’s last postseason win came in 2020 while with the Seattle Seahawks when he beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-9. Since then, he’s lost playoff games to Rodgers, while he was with the Packers, and Jared Goff, when he was with the Los Angeles Rams.
But that’s still more recent than the Steelers’ last victory in the postseason, back in 2016.
Can Wilson regain some of that magic? That’s just another question to be answered.
• No, the Steelers were not taken by surprise by the suspension of cornerback Cam Sutton for eight games to start the season. They expected some kind of punishment from the league when they signed him. So did Sutton.
The fact Sutton chose not to appeal his suspension, which was his right, shows that the cornerback feels a great deal of remorse for the domestic violence issue that led to his suspension and release by the Lions in the first place.
• There are conflicting reports as to whether or not Pirates owner Bob Nutting has given general manager Ben Cherrington the OK to add to the team’s roster at the trade deadline.
But the thing is, it makes little sense for Nutting to say no to adding to this team. The window of opportunity for the Pirates to win will last about as long as the team has Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller under contract.
That means, the window of opportunity takes this team through the 2027 season.
After that, it could be time to rebuild again – unless the Pirates do this right.
And doing it right means not just making a trade to make a trade. That means making deals to acquire players who aren’t rentals for the remainder of this season.
It’s worth trading away some of the team’s minor league depth to acquire players who will be under team control through at least a healthy portion of the window to win.
• If Major League Baseball has a sense of the dramatic, Skenes will start on the mound for the National League against Oakland closer Mason Miller.
Skenes and Miller, a Waynesburg University and Bethel Park graduate, are the two hardest throwers in the league. They’re also two of the most exciting young pitchers in the game.
Why not let them both go out and throw 100-plus miles per hour against each other? After all, they’re both likely only to throw one inning.
• Many of the same people who want the Pirates to give up on former No. 1 overall draft pick Henry Davis are the same ones who wanted the team to move on from second baseman Nick Gonzales after he batted .209 with 36 strikeouts in 115 at-bats last season.
It’s more rare for a young player to get to the majors and hit the ground running than it is for a player to struggle in his first season against big-league pitching.
Gonzales has kept his batting average around .280 in his second go-around in the league this season, pushing his career average just above .250 in a little more than 300 career at-bats.
Davis barely has 300 at-bats and has been asked to play multiple positions while trying to make the adjustment.
He’s been too good of a hitter in the minors to give up on him after 300 at-bats at the major league level.
Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.
