After one of the more tumultuous seasons in recent memory for the Pittsburgh Steelers, they are operating with a level of urgency that is not characteristic of the way the team normally does things. Team president Art Rooney II expressed some level of impatience with the lack of playoff wins in one of his end-of-season media sessions, and that has set the tone for the way the team has operated so far this offseason. From the acquisitions of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to the trading away of Kenny Pickett, the Steelers are not idly sitting by.
Ryan Clark appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday and discussed the impending quarterback competition in Pittsburgh. His take, like many we have heard, is that it should be a true competition giving Fields a chance to become the starter if he outperforms Wilson. But his explanation of why he thinks that will happen is the more interesting part.
“The Steelers are operating in the most unlike Steeler way I’ve ever seen,” Clark said in a clip of the show posted on YouTube. “Omar Khan is not on that, we gotta just build through the draft or we gotta wait ’til these guys develop.”
“The loyalties I think that Coach [Mike] Tomlin has shown to some people like a Matt Canada, like a Kenny Pickett, I think those things are over,” Clark said. “What he did with Ben Roethlisberger kind of riding him out towards the end of his career in hopes of winning a championship. All of that stuff is done. They are trying to win right now.”
The organization has been known for continuity, stability, and patience for a very long time, and it worked for quite a while. But with multiple of the last five or six draft classes producing very little for the team, that was not going to work any longer.
So while Wilson may have been promised certain things prior to signing with the Steelers, they have $1.21 million worth of loyalty committed to him. If Fields shows he has a similar floor of play, he could force the Steelers’ hand since he clearly has a higher ceiling given the 10-year age difference. Fields could very well win the job in the new way that the Steelers are operating, regardless of the “pole position” designation that Tomlin has given to Wilson entering OTAs and training camp.
“If you give Justin Fields, in my opinion, an opportunity to win this quarterback competition outright, I believe he does,” Clark said. “If you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, you should want Justin Fields to win this job.”
They rode the hot hand of Mason Rudolph last season knowing full well that it would complicate things with Pickett, and they did so to give their team the best chance to win, loyalty be damned. Wilson is 35 years old, just entered the organization, and has very little invested in him. There is no reason to show him more loyalty than they did to Pickett.
The way the Steelers have been operating, this competition is far from etched in stone.
