Few national media analysts have consistently supported Pittsburgh Steelers QB Justin Fields as strongly as ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky. Even before training camp began, and before any of the Russell Wilson injury stuff occurred, Orlovsky had been banging the table for Fields to be the Steelers’ QB1.
I’m sure you can imagine how excited he is that Fields has led the Steelers to a 2-0 start so far. He is so excited that he is starting to make some rather bold claims.
“The best thing that he’s shown this year is [being] coachable,” Orlovsky said via ESPN’s NFL Live on Monday afternoon. “Our big complaint about Justin [Fields] was, you hold it too long, you hurt the team, you’re taking sacks, or you’re running from clean pockets. That hasn’t happened once this year. If he plays like that with this defense, they could beat anybody in the conference.”
The AFC is loaded with quarterback talent and offenses capable of scoring more than 15.5 points per game. The Steelers’ defense is good, but there will come a time this season when they allow 24 or more points. Will the offense be able to adjust and get more aggressive to keep up in that type of game?
I won’t go as far as Orlovsky to say Fields hasn’t done any of those things a single time this season. He has, but the mistakes haven’t overshadowed his otherwise consistent play. One glance at his adjusted net yards per passing attempt through two weeks shows that he hasn’t exactly been elevating the group, either.
That is slightly higher than the 5.29 that Kenny Pickett provided the team in 2023, but it is still nowhere near a competitive number for the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks.
Some of that is out of Fields’ control. He has had 107 passing yards and a touchdown directly wiped out by penalties over the first two weeks. And other penalties have prevented other scoring opportunities or cut drives short prematurely. This adds some context to his low numbers, but even with the additional 107 passing yards and a touchdown, Fields would still only have the 20th most passing yards in the NFL.
The first big test will come on Sunday. If Fields starts against the Los Angeles Chargers, he will be up against a team allowing 6.5 points per game (1st in NFL) and 227.5 yards per game (2nd in NFL). If Justin Herbert is cleared to play, he will also be forced to keep pace with a very good quarterback. If Fields finds a way to perform well in that setting, then maybe the Steelers really can hang with the best in the conference.
Currently, the Steelers are one of five undefeated teams left in the conference, and the Chargers are also one of those five. A 3-0 start is nothing to sneeze at. Pittsburgh has only started 3-0 three times over the last 25 years. For now, I will take the wait-and-see approach before I let myself join Orlovsky in that line of thinking.
