There is an awful lot of chatter in the local and national media about the quarterback competition in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson is three years removed from his best football at this point, and at 35 years old, many would like to see the Steelers roll the dice on Justin Fields with better long-term upside for the franchise.
Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo was around the team a lot during spring practices and didn’t exactly offer a glowing endorsement of Fields entering training camp where offensive coordinator Arthur Smith suggested the QB competition could “heat up.”
“Fields, from what I’ve seen, they had a month of spring practices here and he’s a terrific athlete, but really the knocks against him that I heard coming in actually turned out to be true,” Fittipaldo said on Press Coverage via SiriusXM radio. “He’s not terribly accurate with the ball. His placement isn’t all that great, and I could see them maybe having a package or two for him each week depending on the opponent, but I see this team as Russell Wilson’s team.”
While Fields has improved year by year as a passer, he hasn’t made the large leap over his first three seasons to suggest he has a long-term future as a starting quarterback. His touchdown to interception ratio was at its best in 2023 with 16:9, and his passing yards were at a career-high at 2,562. While his adjusted net yards per passing attempt was also at a career high of 5.29, that is the exact same figure that Kenny Pickett offered the team in 2023 as a second-year player.
As much as the Steelers figure to lean on the running game, I don’t see Fields’ athleticism and designed QB runs being enough to justify playing him over Wilson this season. And with 38 career starts, he may never make the leap necessary to be a franchise-type player.
The other major flaw in his game has been his ability to close games in the fourth quarter. He has just two fourth quarter comebacks and three game-winning drives in his career, which is well below what Pickett had in two seasons and certainly well below Wilson—who is in the top 10 for all-time game-winning drives.
Arthur Smith has a track record of getting the most out of the quarterbacks he works with, specifically with Ryan Tannehill back in 2019 and 2020 with the Tennessee Titans, but Tannehill was much more accomplished as a passer entering that situation than Fields is now.
Wilson would have to play very poorly, and Fields would have to show some large improvements during camp for the QB competition to swing in favor of Justin Fields.
