There are certainly quite a few hot takes about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback position past the 2023 season making the rounds right now, and quite honestly, none of them really make sense if you really understand how the NFL works.
One of the most popular recent hot takes when it comes to that topic revolves around the Steelers possibly trading for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields during the offseason. In this post, I am going to explain to you why Fields isn’t likely to come to Pittsburgh during the offseason unless the Bears just outright cut him, and even that is a long shot.
For starters, Fields is under contract with the Bears through the 2024 season, and he’s set to earn a fully guaranteed $3,233,448 next season as part of the final year of his rookie contract. On top of that, Fields’ rookie contract includes a fifth-year option decision that needs to be made by the May 2024 deadline. That fifth-year option is for the 2025 season, by the way, just so there isn’t any confusion here.
What does that fifth-year option decision really mean? Well, in the case of Fields, if that fifth-year option in his rookie contract is exercised by the May deadline, he would then be set to earn an estimated amount of $21.978 million in 2025. Oh, that amount would also be fully guaranteed once the fifth-year option is exercised.
Now, could the Bears trade Fields away prior to making the fifth-year option decision on him in May? Certainly, and that option decision travels with the player as well in such a situation. Even so, whichever team would trade for Fields would essentially be forced into exercising that fifth-year option for 2025. If Fields were traded to a team after his fifth-year option was picked up, the new team would be on the hook for that.
Do we have recent examples of such a thing happening with a former first-round quarterback? Yes, we do, as the New York Jets traded away quarterback Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers on April 5, 2021. The Panthers then turned around and picked up Darnold’s fifth-year option for the 2022 season at an amount of $18.85 million. The Panthers, by the way, gave up a 2021 sixth-round pick and second- and fourth-round picks in 2022 to trade for Darnold. How did that ultimately work out for the Panthers? The short answer to that is not great at all.
If that fifth-year option isn’t exercised, Fields would then be scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in 2025. So, in short, no team is going to give up any sort of serious draft capital for Fields and then turn around and not pick up his fifth-year option. It’s just silly to think otherwise. It’s even sillier to think that the Steelers would make such a move even if they decided that they have seen enough of QB Kenny Pickett at this point.
How many of you believe that Fields has currently done enough in the NFL to even warrant a fully guaranteed $21.978 million in 2025? I can’t imagine many, if any, reading this post actually believe that. He still has so much to prove at this point with 2023 winding down. If he doesn’t show drastic improvement in the Bears’ final four games of the 2023 regular season, it’s hard to imagine that Chicago will pick up his fifth-year option by the May deadline.
Now, should Fields close out the 2023 season in a very impressive fashion, the Bears would then have a huge decision on their hands. They would either need to keep him and possibly pick up his fifth-year option or trade him away to a quarterback-needy team willing to do so. If they kept him and didn’t pick up his fifth-year option, they would run the chance of losing him as an unrestricted free agent after the 2024 season if they didn’t franchise tag him, if even worthy of such.
Why are some people attempting to link Fields to the Steelers? I suppose most are harkening back to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin being at Fields’ 2021 pro day and there being pictures of the two seemingly interacting with each other in a very positive manner on that day. Even so, it’s not like Tomlin ever misses an Ohio State pro day unless he can help it.
In closing, sure, it’s possible that Fields will wind up being traded by the Bears after the 2023 season. Heck, if a team like the Panthers was willing to trade for Darnold and his situation a few years ago, it’s not hard to imagine there being a team willing to think that Fields could be salvaged. Even so, such a list of teams would obviously be very short, and I just can’t imagine the Steelers being included in it.
If Fields does ever wind up wearing a Steelers uniform at some point, it would likely only happen a few years from now and likely with him being a bargain free-agent addition. I would venture a guess that the possibility of that ever happening is very low as we sit here today.
