The drumbeat for Justin Fields becoming a kick returner for the Pittsburgh Steelers is seemingly getting louder. Two more former NFL players have weighed in on their opinion of the potential of Fields becoming one of the team’s return men.
First up, three-time Pro Bowler and Pittsburgh native LaVar Arrington. According to Arrington on the 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe podcast, people need to stop looking at the speculation as a knock on Fields’ ability as a quarterback.
“When people make things derogatory it comes across that way and it takes that narrative and it takes on that tone,” Arrington said. “Why can’t it be that he’s really just that good that we’re just gonna put him back there… why not give the guy an opportunity?”
Arrington referenced former Steelers wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, a quarterback at Indiana who returned kicks for Pittsburgh once he broke into the NFL in 2002. In fact, Randle El was among the better kick and punt returners in the league at that time, returning one kick and five punts for touchdowns in his career.
Randle El obviously did not play quarterback in the NFL, making this a bit of a different scenario than Fields. But Arrington believes that just because Fields has the QB label, he shouldn’t be pigeon-holed to one spot.
“It’s like because they’re a quarterback we’re supposed to be offended that they are being used to do something else?” Arrington said. “Everybody’s got multiple responsibilities that they have during the course of a season or during a game, but we’re gonna get all tight and up in a tizzy, frizzy of emotion because oh my gosh, God forbid you ask a quarterback to do anything but be a quarterback.”
Another former NFL player, Chris Canty, shared a similar belief that the team should be open to Fields returning kicks on the Unsportsmanlike podcast.
He cited that the Steelers have nothing to lose by trying Fields out as a returner based on their minimal investment in him. More notably, Canty says due to the higher quarterback play in the AFC North, the Steelers need to find ways to find advantages in other areas of the game.
“If you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers you have to be unconventional,” Canty said. “You have to think outside of the box given the state of where the AFC is, given the state of where your division is because all of those teams will likely have superior quarterback play.”
The AFC is loaded with highly paid and high-pedigree quarterbacks, so creating advantages in any aspect of the game would be favorable for the Steelers. Additionally, the team has already put an emphasis on taking advantage of the new kickoff rules with the signing of Cordarrelle Patterson.
Could the Steelers continue to try and leverage an advantage at kick returner with Fields? Perhaps. But with no real experience in the role, I would rate this as a very unlikely scenario for the team.
