The Pittsburgh Steelers overhauled their quarterback room in the 2024 offseason, with the move to sign former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson getting most of the attention. The move to acquire Wilson has been generally lauded as a great one by the media, and seen as a low-risk high-reward play, given the fact he is on a veteran minimum contract, but it’s caused the trade for Justin Fields to go under the radar a bit.
Fields is also a buy-low move, as he was acquired for just a 6th-round draft pick, that will turn into a 4th if he plays 51% of snaps in 2024.
However, not everyone is sleeping on the move to acquire fields. Jac Collinsworth, NBC football commentator and son of Cris Collinsworth, ranked the move as his second best of the offseason on the NFL on NBC show.
“I don’t think you give a hoot if you’re Mike Tomlin. If he ends up playing and he’s your quarterback, that’s gonna go down as one of the great quarterback exchange deals of all time. There was one point where Fields was one of the most sought-after players anywhere. Now he’s sort of slowly progressed and matured, got older, went through the craft… and now he goes to one of the toughest places in Pittsburgh.”
It is amazing how quickly Fields’ value tanked. Many people thought the Bears would easily get a second-round pick back for the former first-round quarterback, and they didn’t even get close to it. While Fields didn’t lead the Bears to a ton of success over his time there, he wasn’t exactly surrounded by a top-tier organization and talent around him. Even with the loss of Dionate Johnson, Pittsburgh presents a better landing spot for Fields than Chicago ever was.
The singing of Russell Wilson is important to note too. While he likely blocks Fields for the starting job, at least for a few weeks, he can also provide a lot of value to him. Rodney Harrison, also on NFL on NBC with Collinsworth, commented on the potential relationship between Wilson and Fields.
“He’s always a positive guy, he works extremely hard.” Harrison said of Wilson. “That’s something that Fields could definitely look to and he could be that mentor and help teach him how to continue to prepare in terms of film study.”
It’s always tough for young quarterbacks to develop when they are thrown in situations with no veteran leadership like Fields was in Chicago. We’ve seen many the talent get ruined because of poor development over the past few years in the NFL, especially with a play style like Fields has.
Pittsburgh can offer a fresh start. Few duos are better to learn from in the NFL today than Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson. For the price of just a 6th-round pick, the move is a no-brainer, and if the Steelers have to pay the 4th due to Fields playing a lot, it’ll likely just mean Fields has surpassed their expectations.
