Chicago Bears CB Jaylon Johnson is staying with the team who drafted him, signing a long-term deal to remain a Bear. He wishes the same could be said about QB Justin Fields. Though Johnson was disappointed to hear Fields get dealt to the Pittsburgh Steelers last Saturday, he thinks Pittsburgh is the perfect place for him to go.
Johnson joined Kay Adams on her Up and Adams show Wednesday to discuss Fields’ new landing spot.
“If you truly believe in a guy, I feel like the speculations would’ve been shot down,” Johnson said of the initial Fields’ trade talk. “For me, that’s when I started preparing for it when the speculation and the questions weren’t shot down…so I was preparing myself for the worst. ‘Ok, let’s already process Justin being traded.'”
Rumors swirled around Fields the moment Chicago locked in the top pick by way of Carolina, stemming from their 2023 trade where the Panthers moved up in a deal with the Bears to snag the top pick and take QB Bryce Young. USC’s Caleb Williams has been viewed as a No. 1 overall pick the last two seasons and is expected to be the team’s choice when the draft gets going just over a month from now.
Speculation finally ended Saturday evening when the Bears dealt Fields to the Steelers, a long-rumored trade partner. The door seemed shut after Pittsburgh signed Russell Wilson, but re-opened once Kenny Pickett, in response, asked to be dealt away. Pickett was sent to Philadelphia on Friday with the Steelers turning around for Fields Saturday, sending only a 2025 conditional sixth rounder. It’ll become a fourth if Fields plays 51 percent of the team’s 2024 offensive snaps.
While Johnson hoped the Bears would hang onto Fields, sending him to Pittsburgh is the next best thing.
“Seeing him going to the Steelers may just be another thing where I can continue to support him from the outside looking in. Wish him nothing but the best until, of course, he plays us.”
Pittsburgh isn’t slated to play the Bears or NFC North this season, making the only way the two sides could play in 2024 would come in Super Bowl 59, an unlikely proposition. For Jaylon Johnson, Fields should bring life to a Steelers’ offense in desperate need of his dynamic ability.
“I think he brings a different element the Steelers haven’t had in a long time…I know they have some really good, young wide receivers, tight ends, good running backs. I know they can do some explosive things with the weapons they have on offense. I think really the Steelers have needed that extra playmaker. I feel like they’ve always had a good, sound, solid defense. Defense always does what it’s supposed to do. The offense has always held them back. Not really having too many explosive playmakers. Guys to be able to get the playmakers the ball. I think he can definitely go in there and do both.”
For being someone with an outsider point of view, it’s an overall fair assessment of the Steelers. Since 2019, defense has won them games, not offense, though the script was flipped throughout the 2010’s when the Killer B’s of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell tried to win as many shootouts as possible.
Pittsburgh hasn’t had an athlete like Fields at quarterback since Kordell Stewart, whose ‘Slash’ use made him an exciting player. Though the Steelers were creative with him, having Fields in a modern era more open to running quarterbacks will only make his skillset more effective. He’s slated to serve as Russell Wilson’s backup, but the Steelers seem intent to find ways to get Fields playing time, even off the bench. And it won’t take much for a quarterback controversy to kick up, either.
While tough to lose a teammate, Jaylon Johnson said all the right things in the interview and proved he’s a good one, even if it’s now former teammate to Fields. Catch the rest of his conversation below.
