In the span of eight days in March, the Pittsburgh Steelers completely flipped their quarterback room upside down. After the Denver Broncos gave QB Russell Wilson permission to meet with teams before his release, he visited the Steelers and agreed to a new contract. That triggered a run of events that saw QB Kenny Pickett traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and then the Steelers acquired Justin Fields from the Chicago Bears.
To say that a lot happened in a week is an understatement. While the results remain to be seen, few people would argue that the Steelers did not improve at the most important position in football. But if the Steelers had known what the price tag on Fields was earlier, could it have changed how things went down in March?
“I believe that if you gave the Steelers truth serum, they’ll never admit this nor should they,” ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said on Thursday’s episode of Get Up. “But if they had known at the time that they were going to be able to get Justin Fields for the price that they got him for, I don’t think they would have signed Russell in the first place.”
Greenberg believes that the Steelers signed Wilson because the asking price from the Bears was still too high, so they went to Plan B. Then the asking price changed.
“I think that was at a moment in time when the asking price on Justin Fields was this and the Steelers decided we’re not meeting that price,” Greenberg said as he raised his hand over his head before dropping it down to his side. “If they had known that it was eventually get to be this, I think they would have [traded for] him and they would have given him every chance to be their starter.”
How different would things have been if the Steelers and Bears had been able to agree on the same trade just a week or two earlier? Would Wilson still have visited Pittsburgh and signed as a free agent?
Would the Steelers be staring down the barrel of a potential quarterback controversy?
Maybe not. The old football saying is that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. That’s what former Steelers front office executive Doug Whaley thinks, saying last Wednesday that the Steelers don’t truly have a quarterback and are just hoping that one or both of them will develop into a quality starting option.
So if the Steelers had traded for Fields sooner, perhaps they would not have reached out to Wilson. Maybe they would have simply invested their time and energy into giving Fields a platform to succeed.
However, there’s also the matter of Pickett. Would Pickett have reacted as negatively to a Fields trade as the Wilson signing? Perhaps he would have stuck it out in Pittsburgh. So would the Steelers still have had a controversy, just with Fields and Pickett rather than Wilson and Fields?
It’s all speculation at this point. We do know that head coach Mike Tomlin is a big fan of Justin Fields and that means a lot for a former first-round quarterback looking to restart his career.
And we know that once the Steelers head for St Vincent College, Wilson will be in “pole position” at training camp. Whether he is the starter Week 1 or for the entirety of the 2024 season remains to be seen.
