The Pittsburgh Steelers realized over the course of the 2023 NFL season that things had to change on the offensive side of the ball. They fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada mid-season after two-plus seasons of complete ineffectiveness. The team also knew it needed to address the quarterback room. The Steelers under general manager Omar Khan didn’t just add one veteran quarterback. They added two in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
One is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. The other is a former top-10 pick. It’s a mix of veteran savvy and raw athletic potential. It’s that mixture that has a lot of people eagerly anticipating Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College.
“Easily the most intriguing quarterback of the summer,” Cody Benjamin wrote for CBSSports.com regarding his list of the top training camp battles to watch this summer. “This one may not be as close as initially expected, with Wilson’s savvy veteran touch appearing to make him a firm favorite for Mike Tomlin’s perpetual wild-card contender. Still, Fields’ athletic gifts could make themselves more apparent in the preseason.”
There is a lot to unpack with the Steelers’ competition. Both quarterbacks were acquired for very little investment so the team is not beholden to either this season. Wilson has the experience and winning pedigree that would seemingly suit the Steelers, who are desperately looking for their first playoff win since 2016.
However, the Wilson experiment in Denver with the Broncos failed miserably. Just how much of it was his fault is up for debate, but the truth is that Wilson hasn’t been the same prime Russ who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.
Fields represents youthful potential. He has a big arm and is one of the best running quarterbacks in the league. But he failed in Chicago with the Bears. Just like with Wilson in Denver, how much of the problem in Chicago was Fields is up for debate. But the potential is still there.
The question is just how much of a quarterback competition there will be this summer. Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has consistently said that he doesn’t believe there will be an actual competition. That could indeed be the case as the Steelers try to reboot Fields’ career with as little pressure as possible.
But it would be doing Fields and the team a disservice by not allowing players to compete for a spot in the starting lineup. Can the Steelers and Tomlin really tell Fields that no matter how well he plays, he just isn’t going to start?
We will see soon enough in Latrobe. But Benjamin expects that once the pads go on and the Steelers line up against other teams, Fields may just prove himself worthy of starting. He certainly brings a dynamic element that Wilson no longer does.
