With both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in Pittsburgh, the Steelers could have a quarterback battle on their hands ahead of the 2024 season. While Wilson is in pole position for the job and feels like the heavy favorite to start, you can never say never, and Fields is going to push him. On Up & Adams on Monday, host Kay Adams called the competition one of the better ones she can remember and said there’s really no comparison for a potential quarterback competition of this magnitude.
“This, for me, is the quarterback battle heading into training camp. Maybe one of the better ones I can remember,” Adams said. “Usually, when we get a quarterback competition, it’s a rookie, it’s a second-year guy against a journeyman-type veteran. So having a Super Bowl winner and ever-polarizing nine-time Pro Bowler competing with a talented, bulked up by the way, young three-year starter, who was it the situation, was it the OC revolving door, was it the non-functioning Chicago organization, whatever, that held Justin Fields back. There’s no apples-to-apples comparison that we could find here. I’m pretty sure this is a one-of-a-kind QB battle and it’ll be very fun to watch this play out.”
It’s rare to have two former multi-year starters duking it out, especially when one of them is a 35-year-old former Super Bowl Champion. We’ll see in training camp just how much of a competition it is between the two, though. Former Steelers LB Ryan Shazier was at the team’s OTAs helping coach and he viewed it as a legitimate competition, but others aren’t so sure.
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes the idea of a competition is being driven more by Fields’ agent who wants to keep his name in the news, and the Steelers have openly put Wilson ahead of Fields so far this offseason. Of course, that doesn’t mean that if Fields doesn’t win the job he won’t play, as his dynamic ability with his legs opens up the possibility for him to be used in certain packages, something that Wilson endorsed.
I don’t think Fields has much of a chance to win the job out of training camp given Wilson’s pedigree, and the early reports out of OTAs weren’t too high on Fields’ accuracy, but if he shows noticeable improvement then there’s always a chance of something happening to push Fields ahead. But looking it at from the view of a competition, Adams is right that there just haven’t been many competitions like this one. There’s no rookie or clear-cut future starter involved like when the Steelers had their Mitch Trubisky/Kenny Pickett quarterback battle in 2022 (Mason Rudolph was involved in name only), and it’s two players who have shown to be dynamic and both have a lot of starting experience.
It’s going to be fun see how both Wilson and Fields perform, and I’m hopeful Fields can be an option as their quarterback of the future. We just don’t know if that will be the case, and I think it’s going to take a whole lot for Wilson not to win the job.
