With Arthur Smith reportedly the new offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers, all attention is now on the quarterback position. Will Smith be able to develop QB Kenny Pickett? That seems to be the hope and plan of the Steelers organization. However, head coach Mike Tomlin has said that Pickett will face competition in training camp. So who will that quarterback pushing Pickett be? Pending free agent Mason Rudolph? Mitch Trubisky, despite his struggles in relief this season?
Or will the Steelers look to bring in a quarterback from the outside? One of the most popular names being floated is Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields. Most people presume the Bears will draft USC QB Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, which would then put Fields on the market. That means plenty of links to teams like the Steelers. Earlier this week on the Zach Gelb Show, Chad Brown talked about what the Steelers would need to do in order to make Fields successful.
“I think Justin Fields would fit them if they are willing to make their offense around him like the Baltimore Ravens have done with Lamar Jackson,” the former Steelers linebacker said. “Even the backup quarterback has to reflect that style of play… It’s got to be a whole organizational buy-in if someone wants to go with Justin Fields in my mind.”
If Brown is right, the Steelers need to ask themselves if Fields and Pickett are athletically similar enough to run similar play concepts. Fields is on another level speed-wise, but both quarterbacks have shown the ability to operate on the move in terms of rolling out. Is Fields more dynamic in space? Absolutely. However, Pickett is above-average athletically for an NFL quarterback and can even tuck the ball and run, so the team would not have to scrap the playbook if injuries arose as much as modify it.
How big of a stretch would it be for the Steelers to build their offense around Fields? If there is a complete disconnect between what Fields has done well in his three years in the league and Smith’s philosophy, then there would be absolutely zero reason to contemplate this move. However, for those of you who are on the Fields-to-Pittsburgh train, there are reasons to think Fields could fit with Smith from a purely on-field perspective.
Smith loves to attack defenses vertically. Whether that was with Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee or in his three years as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. His quarterbacks routinely threw the ball downfield, especially compared to the Steelers with Pickett. Historically, quarterbacks under Smith have had an average intended air yards per pass attempt of at least eight. The only one who didn’t was Falcons QB Matt Ryan in 2021 when he was 36 years old. Fields has also averaged at least eight intended air yards per attempt in each of his three years, with a career-high 9.8 as a rookie.
Fields also does a good job when he pushes the ball downfield. In 2022, he ranked fifth in the league in throwing passes 20 or more yards, doing so on 15 percent of his passing attempts. He was also accurate on 42 percent of those throws, which was 16th in the league, so he wasn’t a liability by chucking the ball downfield. He also was accurate on 72 percent of his throws between 10 and 19 yards downfield, which put him second in the league. Basically, Fields likes to throw deep, and he can do it at a fairly high level.
We also know that Smith loves to move his quarterbacks around, and Fields fits the mold of that athletic quarterback who puts defenders in bad situations when on the move. Smith doesn’t draw up a ton of designed quarterback runs, but that might be more due to the that he hasn’t had a quarterback with the dynamic athletic ability like Fields. And Smith seemingly did not discourage his quarterbacks from tucking and running when opportunities presented themselves. Tannehill averaged 6.2 yards per carry and had seven rushing touchdowns in 2020 (he averaged 4.3 yards per rush and had four rushing touchdowns in 2019.)
Even Marcus Mariota averaged 5.2 yards per rush and had four rushing touchdowns in 13 games in 2022 for the Falcons. Desmond Ridder only averaged 3.6 yards per carry in 2023, but he did find the end zone five times on the ground. By comparison, Taylor Heinicke only ran the ball 15 times in his five appearances, but he averaged 8.3 yards per rush and scored once. In Fields’ career, he’s averaged 6.2 yards per rush and scored 14 rushing touchdowns.
Factor in Smith’s love of play-action passes, and you can start to see a picture of how Fields would be used coming together. While Fields has not attempted a large number of play-action passes, he has been effective in that part of the game, especially in 2022, when he averaged 9.1 yards per attempt and threw for seven touchdowns versus three interceptions.
It may be a long shot for the Steelers to pursue Fields this offseason. The organization does seem to be backing Pickett while still wanting to bring someone into training camp to push him. However, if the Steelers do decide that Fields could be the answer to the quarterback conundrum, it looks like he could be a good fit for Smith’s offense. He just needs full organizational support, like Brown said. That means being willing to part with whatever draft capital it would take to trade for him and being willing to commit to Fields as the starter rather than Pickett. Then there’s the matter of that fifth-year option that the Steelers would essentially be signing themselves up for by trading for Fields before he even saw the field for training camp in Latrobe.
