Russell Wilson finishes full week of practice, set to serve as Steelers' No. 2 QB Sunday

Russell Wilson made it through a full week of practice without another aggravation of his calf injury and has earned a promotion of sorts.

For the first time, Wilson is expected to serve as part of the Pittsburgh Steelers official active gameday roster Sunday when they visit the Las Vegas Raiders.

“He’s probably going to be active as the No. 2 quarterback,” coach Mike Tomlin said after Friday’s practice at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

A 13-year veteran and former Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Wilson signed with the Steelers in March and has purportedly been the Steelers’ QB1 since. But he missed three-plus weeks of training camp after suffering a calf injury on reporting day, and an aggravation of that injury three days before the season began has relegated Wilson to QB3 status ever since.

Justin Fields has started each of the Steelers’ first five games, and Sunday will mark No. 6. But Wilson is on track to be the backup for the first time. Wilson has served as the emergency No. 3 QB so far this season, a role veteran Kyle Allen now drops to.

For more than four weeks, Wilson had been listed as “limited” on the daily practice report. For all three practices this week, however, Wilson was deemed a “full” participant.

“I thought he had a good week,” Tomlin said Friday. “He’s proven his health; now it’s just a matter of knocking the rust off.”

Perhaps in anticipation of that rust-shedding process, Tomlin kept Fields at the head of the first-team offense this week. Wilson, though, still took plenty of live reps.

“We obviously have a great pass rush, and I’m going against those guys every day so I’m definitely getting a lot of that simulation there,” Wilson said.

“I’ve played a lot of football games. I’ve been in a lot of moments. I don’t fear ’em. You get ready to go and rock and roll when you step in those white lines.”

Wilson during this past Sunday night’s game recognized he was a play away from getting his first opportunity as a Steeler. After a hit to Fields, an independent neurologist called for an examination to evaluate a possible concussion. That briefly entered Allen into the game and suddenly left Wilson as the lone backup.

As a seven-year NFL veteran with 19 career starts, Allen is among the league’s best No. 3 quarterbacks. Fields, a former college star and three-year starter for the Chicago Bears, also has a level of cachet among his teammates.

But neither has anything close to the career resume of Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowler and two-time starter in the Super Bowl who is a potential Hall of Famer.

“It’s always just a different energy with Russ in there,” right tackle Broderick Jones said, “just because Russ has been doing this for so long. So when he comes in, he has a little swagger about himself, and it just rubs off on us.

“Justin, he’s going to go out there and play lights-out, so at the end of the day, either way I feel like both of them are ready and prepared to do whatever is needed for us to get the job done. But we definitely feel a different momentum or shift (with Wilson in) just because of the two different types of play styles they have.”

Dating to last December, the Steelers have had four starting quarterbacks in a span of 10 games. Now that he has proven his calf can hold up, Wilson — by far the most accomplished of that group — could be the sixth to play and fifth to start for the Steelers in that time.

“I like what I’ve seen out here,” Tomlin said of Wilson’s practice week. “But health and rust are two different things. I thought he had a good week displaying his health and showing he had the ability to protect himself. Now, it’s just a process of getting reacclimated to the ball.”