The story is far from written on the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers and their quarterback situation. The season hasn’t started, and no meaningful games have been played, but the preseason wasn’t exactly a big boost of confidence for the revamped quarterback room headlined by Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
The Steelers probably made the right call moving on from the QB room of Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, and Mitch Trubisky, but change doesn’t necessarily mean improvement.
“I really, really applaud actually their moves to say we’re not in a great spot to go get a quarterback. We don’t really have line of sight at a new first rounder or a big-money free agent or a trade,” The 33rd Team’s Sam Monson said in a video posted on the Check the Mic podcast YouTube channel. “The problem is, sometimes you get what you pay for and they’ve not paid very much.”
Monson acknowledged that it is only the preseason and things could obviously change. But it is hard to argue that the early returns have been anything more than okay at best.
Fields looked good in practice throughout training camp but led just one touchdown drive out of the 11 he received in the preseason. Wilson got six total drives and produced just one touchdown. If you go drive by drive, you can come up with ways that each drive was affected by things out of the quarterback’s control. The offensive line and some pre-snap penalties certainly didn’t help. But at the end of the day one of them needs to produce.
Here are the total preseason stat lines for each quarterback:
Justin Fields: 19-for-27, 199 yards, 0 TD, 0 int, 5 sacks taken, 13 carries, 113 yards
Russell Wilson: 10-for-12, 73 yards, 0 TD, 0 int, 3 sacks taken
I think we all learned the lesson of putting too much weight on the preseason last year with Kenny Pickett’s impressive performance, but that doesn’t completely excuse Wilson and Fields’ pedestrian stat lines.
The preseason finale against the Lions was much better, albeit a much smaller sample size. At least Wilson was able to create an explosive play to WR George Pickens to put a stamp on his starting job.
Perhaps the best-case scenario would have been Fields taking firm control of the starting job. He is 25 years old and has the potential to be a long-term solution. But Wilson stepping up and performing up to his past standards gives the team its best chance this season. Neither of those two things happened in the preseason.
Moving into the regular season, the Steelers are playing in the most difficult division in football. There are at least two high-level quarterbacks in the division with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. Deshaun Watson and Wilson have been in the past, but it’s been some time.
Will the Steelers simply get what they paid for, which is $1.21 million for Wilson and a conditional sixth-round pick for Fields? Or will their low-risk, high-potential moves pay off and culminate in a competitive team for the 2024 season?
