3 things Russell Wilson needs to do to lock up the starting job permanently

Russell Wilson has only one game under his belt as the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback. His debut against the New York Jets was a clear-cut success. Nearly 300 yards passing and a 31-0 run have created anticipation for his encore performance Russ cooked last Sunday night, but heading into the bye, he needs to repeat the recipe for his success.

Justin Fields produced for the first six games in Wilson’s absence, long enough to steal the hearts of Yinzers and make a serious claim to the starter’s throne. Given Wilson’s stint in Denver, there’s always the possibility of a regression to the mean or a recurrence of his calf injury and Fields will be stalking around.

Everytime Wilson makes a mistake, the cameras will ruthlessly cut to Fields loafing around on the sideline. Dwelling on negative possibilities is natural. It’s how we protect ourselves from disappointment. How do you think Jets fans keep coming back year after year?

Despite a slew of injuries to pass rushers, Pittsburgh’s defense has been lights out through the first half of the season. Mike Tomlin’s thought process behind elevating Russell Wilson is that the 36-year-old would give the Steelers offense some punch after six weeks of Fields connecting on jabs en route to a 5-2 record and first place in the AFC North. In the short term, all Wilson has to do is avoid screwing it up.

There’s no victory lap to be taken until the same Wilson shows up consistently. Daniel Jones and the Giants are approaching roadkill, but after missing months of practice, Wilson can use Monday Night Football to build his rapport with his receivers and prove he has the juice to stave off the much younger Fields and make another Super Bowl run. Here are three things he can do to keep the starter’s job past Week 8 and into the second half of their schedule.

Avoid turning the ball over

If there’s one thing Tomlin won’t excuse, it will be Wilson sinking drives playing hero-ball, (or heart attack ball depending on your cardiovascular health) and taking unnecessary sacks or attempting risky passes that are easily intercepted or deflected. Pittsburgh’s defense can suck the air out of opposing offenses well enough to give the most vanilla Steelers offense a fighting chance in a low-scoring affair. However, even the most impregnable defenses bend when they’re pushed to the limit by a turnover-prone offense. They don’t need Wilson giving them a spark.

Last season, Wilson took the second-longest to throw on average among qualifying quarterbacks behind only Justin Fields and was the NFL’s fourth-most sacked quarterback. Wilson avoided holding the ball interminably in his debut against the New York Jets, while occasionally using his legs to buy time when the pocket collapsed, but he has shown a tendency to put the offense in a hole on early bounds by taking sacks or throwing ill-advised passes outside the numbers. 

Convert touchdowns in the red zone

One of the obstacles to Justin Fields maintaining the starting job full-time was his inability to finish drives and turn drives into touchdowns instead of field goals. In the long run, that wasn’t going to be sustainable against upper-echelon teams. It’s basic math — 7 is more than 3 adds up over the course of a game or season. This is another area where Fields’ weaknesses matched up with a strength of WIlson’s.

Wilson’s red zone precision has been mocked since his fateful throw to Malcolm Butler, but he remains one of the league’s most efficient passers once the field shrinks. During his final season with the Broncos, Wilson ranked fifth in the NFL in red zone touchdown passes, throwing only one red zone interception in his 60 attempts. 

Unlock the Steelers vertical offense

In addition to keeping the turnovers low, Wilson has the added responsibility of also knowing when to throw deep without signing up for Secret Santa with the opposing team. One of the downsides of Wilson’s status as a short king is that he struggles to see the middle of the field. His elongated throwing motion prevents his passes from being battled down at the line of scrimmage, but he’s always been at a disadvantage when it comes to anticipating open receivers in the congested hub of action. As a result, the middle of the field grows tumbleweed when Wilson is under center. Wilson thrives on orchestrating chunk plays downfield and typically outside the numbers.

For a decade, offensive coordinators have unleashed Russell Wilson’s deep ball accuracy by utilizing play-action at a prolific rate. In his Steelers debut, Wilson used play-action more frequently than all but one quarterback across the league to freeze the Jets, get Wilson moving outside the Steelers spongy pocket and ripping the ceiling off of the defense.

Not only did Wilson get Pickens more involved, but the angle of Wilson’s passes give his receivers more time to adjust when he targets them deep. Since 2018, Wilson has the longest average "air time" of any quarterback for throws that travel 20 or more yards downfield and leads the NFL in touchdowns thrown 20+ yards downfield.