Russell Wilson seems to have the inside track to start at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but with Justin Fields backing him up, there’s a real chance that Wilson will have a short leash if he struggles. Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports believes that it’s not an overreaction to think that Wilson could benched for Fields, and he went a step further to say that the Steelers “owe it to themselves” to see if Fields can be Pittsburgh’s solution beyond 2024.
“Any sort of slump and the Steelers may be poised to make a move to Fields, especially since the Steelers may want to find out what they have in Fields while he’s under team control. Pittsburgh is better at quarterback for 2024, but needs to find a long-term solution. The Steelers owe it to themselves to find out if that quarterback is Fields, unless Wilson plays at an All-Pro level all year.”
As it stands right now, both Wilson and Fields are going to be free agents at the end of 2024. Wilson is 35 and will be 36 in November, which leaves the 25-year-old Fields as a potential long-term solution. There’s still a possibility that Fields gets an extension before the season, but it might be tough to work something out that both player and team agree to.
That means that if Fields doesn’t play much, the Steelers are going to have to rely on what they’ve seen in practice and their internal evaluation of Fields to see if he can be the team’s long-term solution and someone the team wants to extend. It makes it a lot easier to decide if Wilson struggles and Fields comes in and they can evaluate him, but that’s not what’s best for the team.
The team also could look to give Wilson an extension if he plays well, with a contract of around two years and $80 million speculated by Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s tough to speculate too much about what’s going to happen before training camp, when we should get a much better gauge for how Wilson and Fields look and how the offense is trending, but Pittsburgh does need to try and figure out whether Fields or Wilson can be the guy for them beyond 2024.
If it’s Wilson, then the question becomes whether they keep Fields or try to find another young quarterback they could turn into a future starter. But that’s something that won’t be answered for a while, and for now, the focus is just on Wilson and Fields and hoping that one of them can lead Pittsburgh to the postseason.
