The Pittsburgh Steelers exited one quarterback controversy on Friday afternoon when they traded away Kenny Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles, and they entered what will probably be framed as another with the trade for Justin Fields to a room that already has Russell Wilson. Only, it seems to be pretty clear up front that it is not a controversy at all.
According to Ian Rapoport on X, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin reached out to Russell Wilson while the trade was going down to let him know and assure him he would remain the starter.
“Speaking of Justin Fields and the Steelers trade, coach Mike Tomlin reached out to Russell Wilson last night when the trade was going down to let him know he was the starter,” Rapoport wrote. “Tom Pelissero said it last night, and Tomlin views that as the plan. Fields will compete, regardless.”
This is not news, so to speak, with reports coming out last night that Fields was notified he is the backup once the trade happened. But it is interesting to see the dynamic with Wilson in Pittsburgh. Pickett reportedly was unhappy with the nature of the supposed quarterback competition and requested his way out of Pittsburgh. While there were reports back when Wilson was signed that he was offered “no promises,” it seems that might have been lip service to prop up the idea of a competition.
Reports indicate that Wilson was told he would get the first snaps during the offseason training activities, and the team would go from there with the competition. More or less, it seems that Wilson was signed to be the starter all along. And it makes sense, as it seems unlikely that he would have signed with a team that didn’t view him as the starter.
At 35 years old, and with an impressive list of individual accolades and a Super Bowl in his trophy case, he would have no reason to go somewhere that he thought he would be the backup. He also stated in a one-on-one with Missi Matthews on the Steelers’ website that he plans on winning two or three more Super Bowls over the next five to seven years that he plans to play. That never sounded like a guy that was going to be a backup.
So the details surrounding Pickett’s trade become a little more clear, and the current pecking order between Wilson and Fields seems set. It will be interesting to see how the contract situations for both are handled with them both in the final year of their contracts. Though Wilson and the Steelers reportedly have mutual interest in working out an extension beyond year one.
And not everyone thinks Wilson should just be given the starting job. Louis Riddick posted on X this morning that the Steelers need to let him “COMPETE now.” Though he was also saying that Pickett had a good shot at winning the job over Wilson, for what it’s worth.
