PITTSBURGH — From the outside, the Steelers quarterback room looks as though it's a cacophony of uncertainty, bewilderment, speculation and conjecture, which is exactly the way Mike Tomlin wants it.

But that's from the outside, which may or may not have anything to do with what's going internally. But it shouldn't be surprising. Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the drama that has enveloped the Steelers quarterback room the past three seasons has incited enough intrigue to start a Netflix series.

And it's only going to get worse.

According to sources, the Steelers plan to have Justin Fields start the next two games — Sunday in Denver against the Broncos and the home opener Sept. 22 against the Los Angeles Chargers — while Russell Wilson continues to rest his injured calf so it doesn't morph into something worse.

By that time, especially if the Steelers are 3-0 with Fields as their quarterback, the gossip, conjecture and narrative will increase to royal-tabloid measures.

The Steelers quarterback room certainly gets its share of airtime with the national media, more so probably than any other team in the league. It's been that way since 2022, when they signed Mitch Trubisky in free agency, drafted Kenny Pickett one month later and treated Mason Rudolph like the last guy picked in a playground game during what was loosely termed a training-camp "competition."

Just when it appeared all was calm, it ignited again last year when Rudolph came off the bench to replace an injured Pickett, ignited the offense and effectively saved the season with three consecutive victories.

Now, like any good ongoing series, Season 3 began streaming in July — and you didn't even have to pay $7.99 for the first month to join. The characters changed, but little else.

True to form, Mike Tomlin spent the summer being publicly coy about his new quarterbacks. He declined to anoint a starter, only to say Russell Wilson had the "pole position," even though it was easy to surmise the nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback was not brought in — in the words of former general manager Tom Donahoe— to lead the band at halftime.

Still, even when Wilson injured his calf in conditioning drills on the first day of training camp, Tomlin let the media feast on the idea that Fields was gaining traction in what some people falsely believed was a quarterback competition. When asked repeatedly, Tomlin never said Wilson was the starter or would be when he returns. That was taken — mostly wrongly — as a lack of commitment to the former Seahawks quarterback.

While that would publicly appear to be unfair to Wilson, a highly decorated former Super Bowl winner and future Hall of Famer, it doesn't mean he wasn't assured privately he is the starter.

But there is a potential problem with that approach, something they discovered before.

By letting such a narrative continue, it would not be unreasonable for Fields to believe he was actually competing to be the starter when, in fact, he probably wasn't. That is setting him up for disappointment. That's what happened several years ago with LeGarrette Blount and Melvin Ingram — players who were led to believe one thing when they were brought in only to discover their roles were really something else. And we know how those ended.

Why does Tomlin operate this way?

It would be easy to point to gamesmanship, the ploy many coaches use when not wanting to tip your hand to the opponent before absolutely necessary. But there weren't even any games being played when this was unfolding at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.

Now, with Wilson expected to miss the next two games, Tomlin will remain non-committal on a weekly basis, which is his right. It is the game they played.

Because Wilson has already had a recurrence of the injury and will be 36 in November, the Steelers want to be ultra-cautious with his injury. They do not want it turning into a problem with his Achilles tendon, which would be even more problematic for an older player. The most common Achilles injuries occur in the area where the calf muscle joins the tendon.

And what happens if the Steelers start 3-0 with Fields as the starter? Is this Mason Rudolph-Kenny Pickett all over again? And we know how Pickett, who assumed he would reclaim his starting position when he returned from injury, responded to that.

Think the drama is heightened now? Just wait.

Mike Tomlin delivered the ultimate irony the other day when he said he doesn't pay attention to what is being discussed, nor does he care about what is being said about the national intrigue that surrounds his quarterback room — never mind that he is the person responsible for fueling the narrative.

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