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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH — A week removed from aggravating his training camp calf injury, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson said he’s “getting closer and closer” to a return.
“I’m just trying to be smart,” Wilson said following Thursday’s practice. “Got to do a lot of work today on the field and everything else, throwing and all that, so just trying to be smart.” Wilson didn’t play in the season opener in Atlanta and was limited in each practice following the aggravation.
Coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday the staff was being intentional and cautious in their approach to working Wilson back in.
“We got a battery of some movement work for him scheduled for [Wednesday], and then as is our usual practice, we’ll meet with docs after [Wednesday’s] practice, and we’ll probably have some more clarity then about what the rest of the week looks like.”
Wilson initially injured the calf more than a month ago, and though he was patient in rehabbing the injury during training camp, he acknowledged the frustration with the regular-season setback.
“I think when it happened in training camp, I was disappointed,” Wilson said. “I knew it was pretty strong, pretty good calf injury, and so that was disappointing. But we kept our head up, we worked our butts off every day in the training room. … We spent a lot of time just to kind of get ready, and so when I tweaked it again it was like, ‘OK, yeah, we got to be smart here and not crazy push it too bad. So, I think that was the frustrating part. Obviously, I want to be to be out there in between the white lines with our teammates.”
Wilson warmed up early ahead of the season opener in Atlanta, going through a series of throws before determining that he wouldn’t play. That was a decision made in conjunction with Tomlin, he said.
“I was mentally and physically just trying to get there, to go through the whole process,” Wilson said. “Coach and I talked on Sunday, and we felt like it wasn’t ready yet, trying to be smart. “I think it was a smart decision in terms of we got confidence in our football team, and that’s a great thing about our team. We got great defense, we got great special teams and offensively we can do some really special things, as well. So, I thought that was a huge win for us.”
With Justin Fields getting the start, Wilson spent the game on the sideline as the emergency third quarterback, a role he’ll likely reprise Sunday as he returns to Denver six months after his former team released him two years into a five-year, $242 million contract.
“Anybody who knows me, I always want to go and play and that’s how I get my mind ready, my body ready for that, to play,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day, I believe you got to play dinged-up sometimes. I think Coach, he’s also and the trainers just want to be smart, too, as well just because it’s early in the season. I think that if this is the last game of the season kind of thing or one of those kinds of games, we’re definitely going.
“I think right now I want to go, but we also, too, want to be smart, too, as well.”
Asked whether he could provide insights into his old team, Wilson grinned.
“I got some insight for sure,” he said.