When will Justin Fields “compete” for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback job?
You should take everything you hear no matter the source with a grain of salt in sports reporting. Who told who what, and when did they tell them? Did the person understand what they heard properly? Who has only part of the story, and how does that shape our understanding?
I can’t help but consider these things when thinking about the current state of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback room. They parted with all of the quarterbacks from last season and replaced them with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
We have reports indicating the Steelers told Wilson, even after acquiring Fields, that he’s the starter. But now head coach Mike Tomlin says that Wilson enters the process in “pole position” and that Fields will have an opportunity to compete when appropriate.
This raises a very obvious question for me, namely, when is it appropriate for him to compete? Does Wilson have to struggle and lose ground before they seriously consider Fields? They’re both quarterbacks new to the system, so they’ll want to get work for both of them either way.
Part of me wonders if this isn’t what Tomlin told Kenny Pickett as well when they signed Wilson. Wilson is in pole position, and you are going to compete when it’s appropriate for you to do so. In classic Tomlin fashion, you can parse that to mean whatever you prefer it to mean. The majority of Steelers fans assume it means we’re going to pretend there’s a competition but there isn’t.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what we know, nor does it matter if we know what we think we know. Things are going to play out the same way regardless of what we think. The only real concern is if the Steelers say one thing but do another and thereby create unnecessary friction.
You can ultimately argue that there was no reason for Wilson to sign here when he did without some sort of assurance of a starting opportunity. At the same time, the Steelers have minimal commitment to him if things don’t work out. Ideally things will sort themselves out on the field and we won’t have to think about what we think we know—and what we don’t know.
The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wild Card Round, they have another long offseason ahead.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Does Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team, or are they wasting a year? Will he play just one season in Pittsburgh before moving on, or the Steelers moving on from him? How will the team address the depth chart?
The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?
