There isn’t much QB Justin Fields is doing with the Pittsburgh Steelers that he hadn’t been doing in Chicago. The two principal differences, however, are pretty big. For one thing, he is protecting the football better, and for another, he is winning games. Beyond that, he is largely the same guy who went 10-28 with the Bears—but that’s not all a bad thing.
In fact, Fields had plenty of great throws during his time in Chicago, impressive, athletic, powerful throws. He has always had arm strength and velocity, but he lacked consistency. The jury is still out on consistency here, but he is making the throws. George Pickens should know because he is the one seeing them.
“I’m never surprised that the ball is coming my way. I’m just here to make a play”, Pickens said about playing with Fields, via the Steelers’ website. “Just getting out of the pocket is the biggest thing. When you’ve got a lot of pressure, him throwing on the run was kind of [Justin Fields’] repertoire for years. It’s not anything that super wowed me, but it was very much special”.
A former first-round pick, Justin Fields is now in his fourth season, his first with the Steelers. The Bears traded him after securing the first-overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, which they ultimately used on QB Caleb Williams. Chicago could not appropriately develop Fields and surround him with talent, but he is having more success in Pittsburgh.
Of course, Fields is technically the Steelers’ backup although he is hoping to change that. He remains listed behind Russell Wilson, but Wilson’s status continues to be in question due to a lingering calf injury. It is an injury he aggravated in the week leading up to the season opener, resulting in Fields starting instead.
In those two games, he is 30-of-43 for 273 yards with one touchdown and zero interceptions. He is 2-for-3 thus far on passes with 20-plus air yards, producing 73 yards. But that does not include some big plays in George Pickens’ direction that did not stand. Pickens and Fields have connected on passing plays of 36 and 51 yards that penalties wiped out, both great plays.
Pickens is right about this being a part of Fields’ repertoire because he was one of the NFL’s best deep passers last season. He graded fourth in the league by Pro Football Focus, for example, going 23-of-52 for 673 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. The outlet charged five of those incompletions as drops by the receiver, including one of the interceptions.
Last season, deep-passing targets made up 14.1 percent of Fields’ passing attempts, among the highest in the NFL. Bearing in mind the incredibly small sample size, that hasn’t been the case this year. So far he is only throwing deep on seven percent of his passes, which is near the bottom of the NFL. Of course, that doesn’t include a 37-yard pass to George Pickens that drew a defensive pass interference penalty or other deep attempts negated by infractions.
