After three seasons with the Chicago Bears, fourth-year quarterback Justin Fields needed a reset.
He got just that with a trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and after a strong training camp and preseason, Fields ultimately got his shot at the starting quarterback role due to Russell Wilson’s calf injury just days before the season opener in Atlanta.
Since then, Fields has helped guide the Steelers to a 3-0 start and had his best game of the season in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers at Acrisure Stadium, leading the Steelers to a 20-10 win.
Fields was 25-of-32 for 245 yards and a touchdown, though he did throw an interception. He also added a 5-yard rushing touchdown and looked as good as he has in a Steelers uniform, and maybe ever in his NFL career, as a passer.
“Just overall seeing the field. I feel like I’m just very calm out there,” Fields said to reporters when asked where he feels he’s grown the most so far, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “Cool, calm and collected on the field and really just that sense of peace out there on the field and not really rushing things internally in my brain. Just staying calm in the pocket and making plays when I can and just doing my job.”
Through three games, that’s exactly what Fields has done.
In the first two games of the season, Fields wasn’t exactly lighting it up from a statistical standpoint. He had just 273 passing yards in the first two weeks of the season and had 87 rushing yards, accounting for just one touchdown on the year.
But on Sunday against the Chargers, Fields had his coming-out game.
His passing chart was rather impressive as he spread the football around and hit some plays in the middle of the field, including his 55-yard touchdown to Calvin Austin III that broke the game open.
Fields looked as poised in the pocket as he ever has and really was in rhythm throughout the game through the air.
That poise and rhythm were clear to teammates as guys were reportedly saying in the locker room that they read a confidence in Fields in the second half they hadn’t seen before and knew that they’d win the game with Fields pulling the strings.
For Fields, there was a good feeling and a confidence in each other based on how the game had played out to that point.
“I think we kind of knew. We knew what kind of game we were going to be in, and we knew that we didn’t play well enough in the first half,” Fields said of the confidence in the second half. “We had a couple of miscues in the first half, and we knew we were better than that. So, like I told a reporter out there, Coach T[omlin] challenged us at halftime to play better and be better, and we came out second half and did just that. So it was good.”
The Steelers responded in a big way in the second half, and Fields was a key factor in that.
He’s feeling confident and his play is showing that. That’s a huge development for the Steelers moving forward as Fields seems to be taking the QB1 job and running with it, not looking back.
