The big story of the first day of training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers was Justin Fields getting all the work with the first-team offense as Russell Wilson sat out with a calf issue. Wilson had previously participated at all of the practice sessions throughout the spring, and reports indicated that he was receiving the lion’s share of the starting reps. That trend was likely to carry over into training camp as the offense races to get up to speed ahead of the season, so this was a welcomed opportunity to see Fields in action.
He had a couple highlight throws that have painted a pretty favorable picture for his performance. The Athletic’s Steelers insider Mark Kaboly pumped the brakes on that notion.
“Don’t get fooled of what you see on the internet of a long pass. I mean, he did the same thing he did in OTAs,” Kaboly said via 93.7 The Fan. “He looked spectacular at times. He looked suspect at times as well. I mean, that throw that you’re probably seeing on the internet right now, the 50-yarder to Van Jefferson, it’s seven on seven…Donte Jackson fell at the line of scrimmage, so he was running free.”
Below is a clip of the pass that Kaboly was referring to.
Kaboly pointed out that — while Fields did connect on a deep ball or two — that is what was expected from him. Fields’ best two traits as a quarterback are his athletic talents with his legs and his ability to throw a pretty deep ball down the field. It is everything else, like the on-time throws, seeing the field properly, and the intermediate routes that need to show improvement.
“But he came right back and threw a ball to [Pat] Freiermuth that bounced eight yards in front of him,” Kaboly said. “And you’re like, wait a second, is this the same guy? What is going on here? And you saw that a number of times.”
Consistency in his play will continue to be the biggest issue for Fields until he can prove otherwise. The pads aren’t even on yet. It will only get more difficult to be consistent when the defensive line is applying pressure and he has to navigate the pocket.
The only thing that has been consistent about Fields so far is his inconsistency. Kaboly noted a very similar thing back in May when he said Fields sometimes looks like Ben Roethlisberger and other times like Mark Malone.
To be fair, Steelers Depot’s own Alex Kozora summarized Fields’ play as “solid” in his day one training camp diary.
“A solid overall practice from Justin Fields. Hung in the pocket, threw a pretty deep ball, went through his reads. Wasn’t a spectacular day or anything but I’d call it a “good” day for him.”
It is still early in the process, but how many more opportunities will Fields get to run with the first-team offense? The answer may be not many. If that is the case, then he will carry a lot of the same questions with him that he brought to the Steelers when he was traded to the team in March for a future conditional sixth-round pick.
