Are you still excited about the Saturday news of the Pittsburgh Steelers acquiring QB Justin Fields from the Chicago Bears in exchange for just a 2025 conditional sixth-round draft pick? Whether you are or you aren’t, there’s yet another interesting tidbit to pass along related to this deal and it’s related to the Steelers current Director of Player Scouting.
When Fields was selected by the Bears 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft out Ohio State, their Director of College Scouting was none other than Mark Sadowski, who went on to become the Steelers Director of Player Scouting in 2022. When Chicago hired current Bears GM Ryan Poles, Sadowski was not retained as part of all the staff changes. In short, it’s not hard to speculate that Sadowski did a lot of scouting of Fields ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Sadowski landing in Pittsburgh wasn’t just happenstance. In fact, it was an idea we called out after Omar Khan ascended into the general manager role. The pair worked together at Tulane and Khan, hired by the New Orleans Saints, got Sadowski a job with the team a short time later. As this 2020 Athletic article notes, Sadowski asked Khan to slip his resume into head coach Mike Ditka’s mailbox. Soon enough, Sadowski got an offer, embarking on his NFL career alongside Khan. There’s decades of trust between each other and no question, Khan leans on his counsel.
Fields obviously did not pan out with the Bears and thus certainly hasn’t lived up to being a first-round draft pick. For his NFL career to date, Fields has completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 6,674 yards with 40 touchdowns, 30 interceptions and an 82.3 passer rating. He has also rushed for 2,220 yards and 14 touchdowns on 356 carries. The Bears are moving on from Fields this offseason to presumably clear the way for incoming rookie QB Caleb Williams, who Chicago seems poised to select first overall in 2024 NFL Draft.
Fields’ three seasons with the Bears included him playing for two different head coaches in Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus. He also has played for two offensive coordinators since being drafted in Bill Lazor and Luke Getsy. Clearly, Chicago wasn’t the beacon of stability. Fields, however, should have plenty of stability in Pittsburgh and that starts with head coach Mike Tomlin, who seemed to have a lot of interest in the young quarterback when he attended the 2021 Ohio State Pro Day.
Ahead of the Steelers trading for Fields on Saturday, I’m willing to bet that the brain of Sadowski was picked some as he obviously should know quite a bit about the team’s newest quarterback. With the deal for Fields now consummated, it will now be up to the Steelers coaching staff to see if they can salvage the career of their newest quarterback, who is expected to be the primary backup to new veteran QB Russell Wilson, who signed with the team just a few days ago.
On the topic of Wilson, and as we wrote about just after the Steelers traded for Fields, their new quarterback claimed during his 2021 introductory press conference that he models his game after the longtime NFL quarterback. Wilson and Fields will obviously now be teammates, making the former a nice mentor to the latter.
While Sadowski is your quick and dirty connection between the Fields, the Bears and the Steelers, expect to hear more on this site about Pittsburgh’s Director of Player Scouting moving forward into draft season. He’s one of several front office members that we track the whereabouts of during the annual pro day schedule.
