Nobody can seem to stop talking about Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ new quarterbacks. Neither of them has posted a winning record in the past three years, but surely they are the ticket to the Steelers’ success. Even within that group, Mark Kaboly sees a clear hierarchy, with Fields backing up Wilson. And there are multiple reasons for that.
Asked what percentage chance Fields has of unseating Wilson to begin the season as the starter, Kaboly said on 93.7 The Fan yesterday, “Zero. I just don’t think there’s enough time for that”. He stressed that the Steelers are going to be busy enough getting Wilson up and running. They don’t have time for a serious competition, particularly with everything beyond the field involved.
“It’s more than just being a quarterback. It’s being a leader, taking those guys to dinner”, Kaboly said. I should note that both Fields and Wilson just took the offensive linemen out to eat. “It’s being that type of leader that they haven’t had in a number of years no. So I don’t worry about Justin Fields right now. I think you worry about him next year”.
It’s only becoming more and more difficult for teams to hold legitimate competitions. Each CBA places more and more limits on what teams can do during training camp. We’re already down to three preseason games. You almost can’t afford to be wrong, because you don’t have time to correct it. But Kaboly doesn’t see going with Wilson over Fields as a mistake, based on what he has seen.
“Watching [Justin Fields] in these two weeks, sometimes he looks like Ben Roethlisberger out there, and sometimes he looks like Mark Malone out there”, Kaboly said. “To be honest with you, that’s just how I view it. He needs some more work to be done. You can see the talent. He’s easily the most athletic guy out there. I mean, he just makes people look like fools out there in this setting. But you’ve got to be consistent, and that’s what the issue was in Chicago”.
A former first-round pick, Justin Fields is 578-of-958 passing for his career. He has 6,674 passing yards with 40 touchdowns to 20 interceptions and a 10-28 record. In addition to his passing numbers, he has 2,220 career rushing yards with 14 more touchdowns.
Roethlisberger is a future Hall of Fame quarterback for the Steelers. He threw for over 64,000 yards in his career with 418 touchdowns to 211 interceptions. He is also a two-time Super Bowl champion with a career 165-81-1 record.
Then there is Mark Malone, whom Fields looks like in his bad moments, according to Kaboly. The Steelers drafted Malone in the first round in 1980. He has a career 23-30 record with 10,175 passing yards and 60 touchdowns to 81 interceptions. He only posted a winning record in 1984, going 6-3 that year.
Suffice it to say that Kaboly wasn’t complimenting Justin Fields when comparing him to Malone. Even if he has his moments when he looks like Roethlisberger, how many Malonements will he have?
