Until about two hours before the Steelers opened their 2024 season, the starting quarterback was up in the air. Russell Wilson was ultimately held out because of a stiff calf he suffered on Thursday, meaning Justin Fields got his chance to start.

Wilson reportedly told the team he was cleared to play, but team doctors and policymakers wanted to err on the side of caution.

Mike Tomlin explained the decision-making process leading up to Wilson’s appointment.

“It’s not really a long, drawn-out process,” Tomlin said in a video posted to the Steelers’ YouTube page. “I’d rather deal with short-term misery, to be honest with you. We’re in Week 1. There’s a lot of ball in front of us. I just felt it was appropriate to put the healthy guys on the field. I felt really good about both quarterbacks. I made it very clear to you guys when I named Russ the starter how comfortable I felt with both quarterbacks.”

This is a very similar approach the team took with Wilson when he injured his calf early in training camp. Wilson told the media he would have trained if it were up to him, but Tomlin wanted to prevent a minor issue from becoming a major problem.

The only problem is that last injury kept him out for the better part of three weeks. He slowly worked his way back into training, but was even held out of the season opener. And even with the extra rest, he re-sprung his calf nearly a month and a half later. So what does that mean for the next two to three weeks of the regular season?

Wilson was the emergency third quarterback, so if both Fields and Kyle Allen got hurt, it’s possible Wilson could have played. He didn’t, but the fact that he was even listed as such means the injury isn’t considered serious, or they would have ruled him out.

To no one’s surprise, Tomlin was immediately asked if Wilson would be QB1 once he’s healthy enough to return. Also to no one’s surprise, Tomlin declined to answer, referring to Tuesday’s press conference.

Fields didn’t play great, but overall he had a fairly clean game and made enough big plays to get the Steelers within field goal range on multiple occasions. He did take a few tough sacks trying to extend plays, but you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to his athletic talents.

So the quarterback controversy will continue for another week, at least in the eyes of the media. We’ll likely have many of the same conversations heading into the Steelers’ next game in Denver.