In the blink of an eye, the Pittsburgh Steelers reshaped their quarterback room this offseason under GM Omar Khan. They brought in veteran Russell Wilson on a one-year, $1.21 million deal and then a few days later swung a trade with the Chicago Bears for Justin Fields for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after third-year quarterback Kenny Pickett surprisingly requested a trade.
Khan and the Steelers did really well in their reshaping of the quarterback room, but there is one topic surrounding the quarterback room currently that is causing much debate: Wilson being the clear-cut starter and Fields the backup.
For many, including ESPN’s Mina Kimes, there has to be a competition throughout training camp and the preseason between Wilson and Fields, period.
Appearing on the “RG3 And The Ones” podcast with former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III, Kimes stated that Wilson’s ceiling as a starter isn’t higher than Fields’ and that Fields has shown true flashes of promise that could elevate the Steelers further than what Wilson could do at this point in his career.
“I actually think they were both amazing bargains for Pittsburgh. But the point is, it’s very hard to find quarterback when you’re not at the top of the draft. You don’t have one. I guess first and foremost, it has to be a competition. I know [Mike] Tomlin’s out here saying Russell’s in pole position or whatever, [but] there’s zero reason why it shouldn’t be a real competition,” Kimes said, according to video via Griffin’s YouTube page. “You remember Wilson going back to, again, 2012, he entered the NFL with a real quarterback competition.
“And thank God they had one. They [Seattle Seahawks] paid Matt Flynn that year more than Russell’s making now, 10 times more in Pittsburgh. I think for Fields, I’m a huge fan of his game and I think he’s shown a lot of flashes that would still be interesting to me. As a team, I think his ceiling is higher than Russ at this point. Russ’s floor is probably higher.”
That’s a fair take from Kimes, no doubt.
Wilson provides a higher floor because of how established and experienced he is at the quarterback position. Though the Broncos moved on from him and took an $85 million dead cap hit for him to play elsewhere, it’s not as if Wilson was bad last year. He threw for 3,070 yards and 26 touchdowns, throwing jut eight interceptions in the process.
He was smart with the football, took shots deep often and had a lot of success doing so.
But the ceiling might be a bit limited in comparison to Fields, especially with Wilson being 35 years old. The ceiling for Fields is exceptionally high as he’s a great combination of speed, arm strength and overall athleticism. He just hasn’t put it all entirely together just yet, which leads to a belief in the lower floor with Fields, like Kimes said.
It doesn’t seem like there will be a competition for the starting job from the Steelers’ perspective. Wilson is likely going to open the season as the starter, but Fields should undoubtedly get a chance to push Wilson and potentially get a chance at kick-starting his Steelers’ career in strong fashion.
If there is a competition between the two, Kimes wants to see two things from Wilson right away this summer.
“The two things I’d wanna see is coming in this summer, preseason, whatnot, does it look like you can play faster? In a way that you can cut down on the time to throw on the sacks a little?” Kimes said. “And then do you, as an organization with Arthur Smith as your offensive coordinator, are you willing to fully embrace his mobility? Because if not, don’t even bother having a competition. Don’t even bother having him run the offense.”
Wilson will have to be better playing in structure, getting rid of the ball in a timely manner, and cutting down on the sacks and trying to extend seemingly every play possible. Learn to take what’s there and stay within structure.
If he can’t do that, it could open the door for Fields. But time will tell. It’s an interesting offseason ahead of the Steelers at the quarterback position, without a doubt.
