Will the Pittsburgh Steelers use QB Justin Fields on offense in a tailor-made sub-package? Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum believes that they will—but also believes that they shouldn’t. For him, the whole idea triggers bad memories of his final year as general manager with the New York Jets. Memories of a certain former Florida Gators quarterback.
“I still have scar tissue going back a decade when we played both Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow”, he said on Get Up! yesterday, discussing the possibility of the Steelers using Fields in a sub-package with Russell Wilson as the starter. “Who would ever trade for Tim Tebow? I think you have to declare who your quarterback is and move forward”.
Tannenbaum, of course, traded for Tim Tebow, so he was poking fun at himself there. Unlike the Jets’ unsuccessful Tebow experiment, however, he believes that the Steelers should go with their potential sub-package quarterback as their starter.
“I understand RGIII’s idea, but again, I lived it in New York. When you play two quarterbacks, you don’t really have one”, Tannenbaum said, referring to Robert Griffin III, who popularized the idea of using Justin Fields in his own package. “I think the sooner they can establish one quarterback—and again, hopefully it’s Fields for them—the better they are”.
As you may know, the Steelers turned over their entire quarterback room from last season. They released Mitch Trubisky, traded Kenny Pickett, and let Mason Rudolph leave in free agency. In turn, they signed Russell Wilson and Kyle Allen and traded for Justin Fields.
The Steelers only turned to Fields as an option after Pickett requested a trade however. It appears they were set to move forward with him after signing Wilson. Once he made it clear they wanted out, they made the move to trade for Fields. Many doubt that the Steelers will allow him to seriously compete for the starting job, however. Even though many, like Tannenbaum, thinks he could win.
“Not all quarterback competitions are created equal. They’re both gonna be free agents, and if I’m Justin Fields, I’m looking at Ryan Tannehill and all the success he had in Tennessee with Arthur Smith”, he said. “They have the same skill set. They’re big, strong, athletic, can make deep throws off of play action and can make plays with their feet. And if I’m Justin Fields, I am dying to win this job”.
Fields is entering free agency next year, and sitting on the bench for a year won’t look good. Getting situational work in a sub-package isn’t what teams want out of a starting quarterback, either. It’s better than nothing, but Fields obviously needs to start and win some games.
He is already at or near a low point in his value since coming into the league as an 11th-overall pick. If he were to start for the Steelers, Fields could realistically double his career win total over the past three years. And then all of a sudden he would be a viable starter option on the open market.
