Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan, like the rest of the organization, is throwing weight behind QB Kenny Pickett. Publicly, everything they’ve said aligns with Pickett being the team’s starter so long as he can beat out summer competition. Meaning, the team won’t make a splash move. But asked by reporters Thursday about if the team is making a move for Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields, Khan didn’t outright deny the possibility.
“I’m not gonna go into details about the conversations that we’ve had,” he said. “But like I mentioned earlier, I can tell you that I have an obligation to look at every avenue that’s out there to try to make us a better football team.”
The Steeler’s longstanding policy is not to discuss players not on their roster, especially someone as notable as Fields, one of the biggest dominos and question marks of the 2024 NFL offseason. Odds seem likely that Fields will be traded in the coming weeks with the Bears holding the first overall pick and their sights set on USC QB Caleb Williams. Pittsburgh’s been rumored and speculated as a landing spot for Fields given it has an offense with talent and is looking for more production at quarterback. But there’s been no credible reports indicating the Steelers have interest in Justin Fields and publicly, Art Rooney II, Mike Tomlin, and Khan have framed the quarterback situation as Pickett’s job to lose.
As we wrote earlier, Khan indicated that the team will create “strong competition” alongside Pickett for the summer and noted a trade is one way to create that. If the team doesn’t trade for Fields, who would become the de facto starter and not competition, more practical quarterback deals could revolve around the New England Patriots’ Mac Jones, New York Jets’ Zach Wilson, and the Washington Commanders’ Sam Howell. The viability of those three names are wide-ranging but they would be cheaper and more realistic trade options than Fields.
Ultimately, signing a veteran is the most likely outcome, either retaining pending free agent Mason Rudolph or signing veteran Ryan Tannehill, who enjoyed success under Arthur Smith in Tennessee. But the speculation about Fields-to-Pittsburgh won’t end until the Bears make a decision on his future. If not the Steelers, the Atlanta Falcons seem like Fields’ most likely landing spot as he is a Georgia native and the Falcons are starting over at quarterback. Fields was recently captured celebrating something so perhaps an answer will be known soon enough.
