As the start of Organized Team Activities draw near for the Pittsburgh Steelers, all eyes will be on the quarterback position as the reshaped room featuring Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Kyle Allen and John Rhys Plumlee will hit the field next week for the first time together.
Though Wilson is viewed as the starter for the Steelers and is “in the pole position” as QB1 entering the offseason, according to head coach Mike Tomlin, ESPN’s Brooke Pryor believes that the quarterback position will be much more of a true competition than Tomlin, GM Omar Khan and others have let on this offseason, and that Fields could be the starter by the end of the season.
Appearing on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show Tuesday Pryor gave it a “50/50” chance that Fields — who was acquired via trade from the Chicago Bears for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft — is the Steelers’ starting quarterback by the end of the 2024 season.
“There’s so many variables in that too, ’cause like what’s the record at the end of the season, right? How successful was the offense? How successful is the defense? I think I give it a 50/50 [shot]. Especially, listen, and that’s because when you look at the contract situation for both of those guys, they’re not under contract beyond this season,” Pryor said when asked what percentage she would put on Fields being the starter at the end of the year. “So at some point the Steelers have to evaluate Justin Fields to figure out, ‘Hey, we didn’t pick up his fifth-year option because we’re not gonna spend $25 million on a guy that we haven’t seen with our own eyes in our system.’
“But at some point you have to figure out are we going to continue to employ this guy before he hits free agency or are we going to extend Russell Wilson and employ him longer, or are we gonna go to the draft and try to draft another quarterback?”
Based on everything that’s been reported since the acquisitions of Wilson and Fields, the Steelers and Wilson intend to do a long-term contract after the season. They also are expected to do a multi-year extension with Fields, keeping him in the Black and Gold moving forward.
Pittsburgh didn’t swing the trade for Fields to be a one-and-done guy with the organization, and if things work out on the field in 2024 for Wilson, he’s going to stick around longer, too.
But how will things shape up on the field if that’s the case? Fields isn’t going to want to sit and watch at this point in his career, especially with the experience he has to date. Wilson isn’t going to take all that well to a backup role when he believes he can still play.
That shouldn’t be a concern for the Steelers right now. It’s all about the 2024 season, and to their credit that appears to be what they’re focused on, pushing all the chips into the table and letting the competition play itself out.
Right now though, it’s hard to envision Fields being the starting quarterback at any point in the 2024 season unless Wilson gets hurt. That might not be what people want to read, but that certainly seems to be the case. The Steelers are deferring to Wilson’s experience and leadership at the position, especially after not having it the last few seasons following the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger.
Wilson might be that steady presence the Steelers need at the position. And for now it appears he’s going to be the guy no matter what.
Pryor doesn’t fully buy into that though.
“I think that there is a competition. I don’t know how realistic it is that that means that Justin Fields will start Week 1,” Pryor said of the quarterback situation. “I think that Mike Tomlin’s been very intentional in saying the phrase pole position every time he talks about the quarterbacks depth chart.”
The last time the Steelers found themselves in this situation was ahead of the 2022 season after signing Mitch Trubisky in free agency and selecting Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The Steelers made it clear that Trubisky was the starter, giving him all of the first-team reps in training camp and in the preseason and then handing him the reins to open the season. But things got loud for Trubisky and pressure mounted for Pickett to take over, which he ultimately did at halftime of Week 4 against the New York Jets at Acrisure Stadium.
That move by the Steelers to turn to Pickett so quickly created some discomfort in the locker room and really threw things into some disarray. Tomlin and the Steelers appear to be trying to learn from that and handle this new situation carefully, knowing they have an experienced, future Hall of Fame quarterback on one hand, but a young quarterback they have coveted on the other hand.
The Steelers won’t be afraid of competition though and will roll the ball out and let the players decide. That’s the only thing you can do in this situation. These things tend to take care of themselves in the end, regardless of how people feel one way or the other in situations.
