The Pittsburgh Steelers know that Russell Wilson and Justin Fields don’t necessarily solve their quarterback problems for the next decade. They got both of them for bargain prices, after all, so there are at least some risks involved. Both of them arrived in Pittsburgh “scalded”, as Mike Tomlin said, and with something to prove. But, as you might imagine, there is the distinct possibility that the only thing they prove is their critics right.
That seems to be where former Steelers WR Plaxico Burress is leaning with his former team’s quarterback future. After playing with Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning, he doesn’t see Russell Wilson or Justin Fields as a franchise piece at this stage in their respective careers.
“I just don’t know what the Steelers are gonna do moving forward from a franchise quarterbacking standpoint”, he said on the Carton Show yesterday. “I really think that they are looking for a successor after this season. I don’t see either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields being a future quarterback for the Steelers”.
The Steelers took their swing in 2022 by drafting QB Kenny Pickett in the first round. After two seasons, however, they gave up, signing Wilson. After the Steelers signed him, Pickett asked for them to trade him, after which they traded for Fields as well.
Russell Wilson is a potential future Hall of Famer with a Super Bowl ring and nine Pro Bowls. He has 115 career wins with 43,653 passing yards and 334 touchdowns. He won six postseason games in his first three seasons but has won three since. His last postseason win came in 2019—and he has three consecutive loving records.
As for Justin Fields, he has a 10-28 record in three seasons with the Chicago Bears. They traded him after landing the first-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, using it to select Caleb Williams. Like most teams, the Steelers really liked him coming out of college, but they had no shot of drafting him.
The Steelers signed Wilson to a one-year, Veteran Salary Benefit deal thanks to a quirk in his previous contract. Released by the Denver Broncos, offset language limited how much he could earn unless a team was willing to pay him more than what the Broncos still owed him.
Trade talks between the Steelers and Bears for Justin Fields didn’t really heat up until after Pickett’s exit. By then, it was clear that there wasn’t a robust market for Fields, so they wound up with him for a conditional future sixth-round draft pick.
But are either Wilson or Fields the future for the Steelers, at least beyond the 2024 season? Both of them are only under contract for this year, the Steelers declining Fields’ fifth-year option. Local reporters suggest that they brought both of them in with the intention of it being more than a one-year arrangement.
But they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, don’t they? The Steelers wouldn’t have made these moves if they didn’t have some hope for them. But they wouldn’t have been in the position to make them if they didn’t have a high chance of failing.
