The quarterback situation has been the hottest topic regarding the Pittsburgh Steelers for quite some time now. Russell Wilson was initially named the starter to begin the season, but with a lingering calf injury causing him to stay on the sideline in Week 1, Justin Fields got his chance to lead the offense.
Fields did a solid job. Pittsburgh never found the end zone against the Atlanta Falcons, but they played mistake-free football for the most part and kicked six field goals on their way to an 18-10 win. Fields completed 17 of his 23 attempts, throwing for 156 yards with a solid 91.9 passer rating. He relied on his legs a lot, with his 14 rushing attempts being the most of any Steelers quarterback in the modern era.
A quick glance at a stat line like that makes it look like a very conservative performance, which it was. However, according to Chris Canty on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike, that could be a result of Fields trying to get rid of some bad habits.
“Now he’s in Pittsburgh, there is a process with him trying to unlearn a lot of the ‘bad’ that he experienced with the Chicago Bears,” Canty said. “So, Mike Tomlin is trying to do two things, he’s trying to instill confidence in him, while also breaking down those bad habits he was able to develop.”
Fields was drafted by the Chicago Bears, and his time there was complicated, to say the least. He was there for three years and had two head coaches as well as two offensive coordinators during that time.
In His rookie year, Matt Nagy was the head coach and Bill Lazor was the offensive coordinator, but they were fired after Fields’ rookie season. During his second and third seasons, he dealt with Matt Eberflus as head coach and Luke Getsy as his offensive coordinator.
We’ll have to see how Fields continues to develop with the Steelers, but it’s fair to say he didn’t deal with the most stable coaching staff in Chicago. He also didn’t have many weapons around him, especially compared to how the Bears have supplied their new quarterback, Caleb Williams.
As Canty alludes to, Tomlin has a tough task here. Fields learned a lot of bad habits during his time in Chicago, so Tomlin, and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, are trying to coach those out of him. The only way to do that will be to deal with the mistakes that come with it, but those mistakes can hurt his confidence, which Pittsburgh is attempting to raise simultaneously. It’s a tough situation.
Week 1 was a good start. Fields went up against a solid defense, didn’t make any crucial mistakes, and made some big throws when he needed to. If he wants to earn the full-time starting role, he’ll have to take more risks than he did on Sunday, though.
Still, it was an encouraging Steelers debut for Fields. If he performs well with his opportunities to start in Weeks 2 and 3, we might see him run away with the starting role.
