WESA Talking Steelers: Russell Wilson still battling calf injury, Justin Fields to start in Denver

The 2024 NFL season started off on a positive note for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who defeated the Atlanta Falcons on the road last Sunday, 18-10.

The Steelers will once again be sporting the white “away” jerseys this Sunday when they head to Denver to play the Broncos.

Jim Wexell writes for 247Sports.com, has covered the Steelers since 1995, and joined 90.5 WESA All Things Considered host Jeremy Scott to discuss the upcoming matchup.

Jeremy Scott: Jim, I do want to get to Sunday's game, but first I want to touch upon this last game, specifically the way the Steelers faithful more or less turned Atlanta's home field into Acrisure Stadium South, for lack of a better term. The Falcons offense at times had to use hand signals to get their pre-snap alignments because of just how loud it got in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Now, you are an authority on this. You wrote a book called "Steeler Nation" that is specifically about how the Steelers are a nationwide phenomenon. The trope is Steelers fans travel well. When you see a stadium taken over by Steelers fans, as it was on Sunday, is it more a matter of Steelers fans literally traveling well from Pittsburgh, or the Steelers just having these large fan bases that are native to the respective cities they play in?

Jim Wexell: Steelers fans are already there. Steelers fans are among us. Like the aliens, they're among us. And in a baseball city such as Atlanta, they just buy those things up. I mean, there is some traveling that goes on, but pretty much the deep diaspora of the '70s spread Steelers fans, and it continued in the 2000s. It spread the fan base out from Pittsburgh and also made some fans of people in other cities. But I don't think you're going to have anything close to that degree in Denver this week. Denver's a rabid football town. Unlike Atlanta.

Scott: We could hit upon personnel minutia, if we had more time. But since we're limited, let's get to the burning topic: the quarterback situation. Justin Fields found out in the 11th hour, more or less, that he was starting Sunday's game and acquitted himself like a game manager; didn't throw any touchdowns but took care of the ball with no lost fumbles or interceptions thrown. Was Fields executing the script written for Russell Wilson? Should we expect to see more Fields-centric play calling in Denver since it looks like he is going to start this game? Or did we in fact see the stuff he feels comfortable running?

Wexell: They would like to run the ball more with Russell Wilson. But that's the problem. And that's what's keeping him on the bench, the lack of mobility. And I do think they changed the script up. A lot more outside passing by Justin Fields to prevent the mistakes over the middle. He's been mistake-prone at camp. He throws a beautiful ball at times and then he'll answer that with a pick right into the inside linebacker's arms. So until he instills confidence in the coaching staff, I think we're going to see that kind of cautious play calling outside the numbers. And you know even his screen passes are dangerous. But that's Justin Fields and he'll run and he'll throw deep and throw a beautiful deep ball. But that's going to be the case this coming week. Russell suited up at practice, but he just stands back there and takes mental reps and he's cool with it all. He gets it. He said the biggest thrill last week was running out in the Black and Gold and seeing all the Terrible Towels in Atlanta. He thought that was really cool. So, Russell's a good dude and he's going to take this in stride. It's going to make him stronger, as he likes to say. But right now, the job's Justin Fields'.

Scott: The team was without its first round pick from this year's draft, offensive tackle Troy Fautanu, in Atlanta. But starting left tackle Dan Moore, Jr. allegedly pulled up lame on Monday in practice. Fautanu returned to practice this week and has been inserted as the starting right tackle, while Broderick Jones, who was last year's first round draft pick who started at right tackle this past Sunday, slid over to his more natural left tackle position. Are we facing the possibility, Jim, of two rookies starting along the offensive line in Denver: center Zach Frazier and Fautanu?

Wexell: Yes, we are. And right after Thursday's practice, we tried to get confirmation from Dan Moore, who returned to practice at left tackle. His ankle swelled up in the game and he came back and Tomlin said on Tuesday that it's probably a minor injury. So Dan Moore returned. He returned to his starting job at left tackle, and Troy Fautanu stayed at right tackle. And so that's the big news at Thursday's practice.

Scott: Wow. So does that mean Broderick Jones may be sitting on the bench?

Wexell: By all indications, that's going to be the case.

Scott: Well, that was a bombshell right there for anybody who follows offensive line play. And of course, the fact, again, Jones was last year's first round draft pick. So they want to get him on the field. The fact he's not going to be starting, does that tell you anything, Jim, about how they view his progress or lack thereof?

Wexell: Well, Broderick hasn't been playing that well. But nobody's given up on him by any stretch. And he is not taking this bitterly, either. And hey, Friday's practice could be different. I doubt it. But, you know, they liked Fautanu before he was hurt and they were going to move Broderick over, but Dan Moore is probably their best lineman right now, with [Isaac[ Seumalo injured. Frazier's still a rookie. Frazier played very well last Sunday in the opener. But Dan is a consistent player and I have to give the credit to the coaching staff there. They're playing the best five. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's what coaches are paid to do. It's hard to deal with all the egos involved when these kind of situations arise. But it's the coaches who have to deal with it and Broderick Jones is not showing any kind of, you know, any kind of short term misery, as Mike Tomlin likes to say. He's okay with this. He's just going to work to get better. And we all assume that Broderick's elbow is bothering him. That's why he's wearing a brace. And we figured that's why he's played not up to his standards of last year.

Scott: All right, Jim, you said that you liked the Steelers in Atlanta. That prediction came true. You're 1-0 on the year, if we were keeping score. What do you think about this Sunday's game?

Wexell: Yeah, I like the Steelers again. I like them to run the ball on Denver and they are going to have the defense again as we talked about last week, defense and special teams, although special teams kind of took a blow with this big time kicker that was injured -- big time punter. And so, Boswell, now, the over-under has to be about 65 yards on his field goals in the thin air in Denver. But I like the defense to handle the rookie quarterback. They didn't blitz last week. I expect them to show everything this week because Denver hasn't seen them blitz yet on tape. So I think that will change this week with Bo Nix, the rookie quarterback for Denver.