Russ vs. Justin

 There is a very interesting battle? going on this preseason in the quarterback room of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  After the Stillers emptied out their qb shelf from last year, they went hunting for some new talent to restock.  

My friend kept saying they were going to go after Russell Wilson.  Many time he said that.  That was when we still had that KP8 guy.  I said, no way, don't want him.  He was miserable in Denver and caused all kinds of distractions for the team.  Plus, he has his own version of Taylor Swift to cause more distraction off the field.  I heard so many other people try to guess what was going to happen in the qb room too.  Every qb imaginable was coming to the Burgh.  Cousins, he's definitely coming to Pittsburgh.  Russ, was a rumor.  Fields, was a rumor.  At this point I don't even remember the other 50.  But, if they were a free agent and had an arm they were coming.

Then, the first domino fell.  Trubisky got let go.  This should not have been a shock to anyone because of how he has played since arriving, and really since coming to the league.  He's not an NFL starter.  Really, he didn't even prove he's a quality backup in his time in Pittsburgh.  Buffalo seemed to get something out of him when he was there, so he went shuffling of to Buffalo again.   I don't think too many people were upset about his departure from Pittsburgh.  He got a shot and couldn't hold off KP8.  

Then, the next domino fell.  QB3/2/1? Mason Rudolph.  After Mason proved that he could at least come in and win a few games in relief, there seemed to be interest by the Steelers and him to resign him for some kind of contract.  I actually would have liked to have seen that.  Firstly, I'm shocked to see Mike Tomlin or whoever's decision it was, decided to give Mason a chance once Kenny was injured.  I'm not going to say I knew all along that Mason was going to ride in and save the season.  The thought did occur to me in early in the season.  What if Kenny and Mitch were injured and Mason had to come in and play.  Then, what if he actually played his butt off and won games decisively.  Then, what if Kenny and Mitch didn't win games decisively.  What a conundrum that would be.  What made the whole thing great is that Rudolph won games around Christmas and New Year.   All those reindeer that wouldn't let him join their games were hiding.    Mason put up a good fight and proved he's a player and ended up signing a contract with the Titans.  Seems like a fresh start is a good thing for him.

Next Domino, I get a text and it said they traded Kenny.  Truthfully, this is so after the fact that I don't know if the order was Mason leaves, Russ signs or Russ signs and Mason leaves.  I'm just going with Mason leaving first.  Maybe a few people will comment on the article if I write it wrong.  Anyway, so Mason leaves, Russ signs and then the shocker.  KP8 apparently doesn't want to compete with Russ for "Pole Position."  If Mike T. came to me and said, uh yeah, Kenny, Russ is in Pole Position and you're number 2, I'd have to say what is this a video game or formula one race.   I like most of coaches Tomlinisms, but this one annoys me for some reason.  Maybe because it just sounds like he went to Kenny and took the whole situation very casually and said he was going to be sucking Russ's exhaust this year.  So, Kenny, in his wisdom said I'd rather not do that and to avoid having a hostage on the team (another Tomlinism), they sent him to the lesser-known Pennsylvania team.  Guess what he's going to do there.  Suck on the exhaust of another qb in Pole Position.  Kenny, I'm confused, what did you gain?

So, Kenny is now gone, and Mason is gone, and Mitch is gone, but now we have Russ.  Then, the next domino fell.  The only thing is this domino was all the way in Chicago.  The Bears, who have such a rich history of qbs decided they were going to start over instead of paying their current qb.  They decided, with the number one draft pick in hand, to go with Caleb Williams.   He talks a big game but hasn't done much to back it up.  Well, he'll get his chance with the Bears and their rich qb tradition.  They actually acquired a few playmakers for him.  That is something they did not do for their previous qb.  So, since they were getting Mr. Williams with the number one pick, they did not want competition for the Pole Position(lol), and all of a sudden Justin Fields is free to move on with a year left on his contract and a possible option year.  The rumor is that the Bears had multiple offers for Fields, but took the lesser Steelers offer because he wanted to go to Pittsburgh.  What a nice team.  The same nice team that didn't do anything to help Justin with weapons after they stuck him in there.  Don't know if I'm buying what they're selling, but ok.  

So, next domino, the Steelers take Fields off the Bears hands for a 6th rounder/4th if he starts half the games this year.  Can you say steal.  I watched Fields in Columbus at Ohio State.  He can play a lot better than what he showed in Chicago.  Of course, many college stars have failed miserably in the NFL, but it doesn't seem like he has had a legitimate chance to show what he can do.  He nearly set the qb season rushing record one year.  I don't have any method to measure the ability to send passes, but I'm pretty confident he can get his passes to receivers a little faster than the floaters Kenny was sending.   Honestly, I was thrilled that they got Justin Fields and for a 6th rounder.  Thank you, Omar.  I knew that one of the things the Bears were taking into consideration when deciding whether to keep Fields or draft Williams was whether they wanted to utilize his 5th year option or not.  Once they traded him to Pittsburgh that fell on the Steelers to decide.   I liked him at OSU but have not been very high on him with the Bears.  Alot of that was because he was with the Bears.  As soon as the Steelers picked him up I was sure they'd pick up the option and he'd be their qb of the future.  

The more I heard from anyone with an opinion, the less sure I got that the option would be picked up and sure enough there wasn't even a story about it the deadline day.  No mention of it whatsoever.  Of course, everybody's attention was on whether they'd pick up Najee Harris's option, which they also didn't.  

The Steelers restocked qb room, now includes Mr. Pole Position, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and the third guy.  I've already got his name wrong before and I'm not wasting my time looking it up now.  The top two are all that matter anyway.  Russ has a one-year contract for a million dollars or something like that because he's also still being paid many millions by the Broncos.  Because Justin Fields 5th year option was declined, he also is on a one year contract.  So, if Russ has a good year, he's going to want to get paid significantly more to keep playing.  If Russ doesn't play well, and Justin comes in and plays well, he's going to want significantly more than this year.  So, unless the Steelers pick one of them in preseason and give them more money, we're going through this whole qb extravaganza again next year.