It’s official: Justin Fields is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 1 starter against the Atlanta Falcons. Just a little over a week after Wilson was named the starter, a calf issue created a last-second change to Fields.
Many people, particularly in the national media, thought Fields should have been the starter all along. Now, he gets a chance to prove them right.
The natural question in this situation is whether or not the Steelers will go back to Wilson once he is healthy. I would lean towards yes, but we also know Tomlin isn’t afraid to ride a hot hand.
Shortly after the news broke, a panel of NFL Network analysts discussed Fields as the starting quarterback.
“That puts him in the driver’s seat in my mind,” said former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci via NFL GameDay Morning on NFL Network. “Because he’s gonna get the first start. If he plays well, I think he gets another start. And Russ [Wilson] is only on a one-year minimum deal. I mean, they haven’t committed to Russ…If Justin Fields plays like he did at times in Chicago, he might be able to keep that job.”
That was one of the large talking points when both quarterbacks were acquired. Wilson signed for just $1.21 million because the Denver Broncos are picking up the rest of the tab from his previous contract. I half expected Wilson to want a bigger contract so the Steelers would have some skin in the game. They didn’t, so the Steelers now have options.
I am not sure I fully agree that Fields has shown enough in his career so far to warrant these types of expectations from Mariucci. Fields has only won 10 of his 38 career starts. But there is no escaping the fact that Fields is a decade younger than Wilson and has way more long-term potential for the Steelers’ organization.
“They aren’t committed to either one of these guys, although Russ was their starter,” said Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner. “So a lot’s gonna be dependent. He [Fields] plays well, I agree, I think he starts again next week. He doesn’t play well, then it’s easy to go, ‘Oh, we were gonna go with Russ anyways.’ So a lot will be determined, I think, on where he goes this season on this one game against the Falcons.”
We learned last year that Tomlin is willing to ride the hot hand and have the starter lose their job due to injury with the Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph situation. It is worth noting, however, that their backs were against the wall, coming off a three-game losing streak while trying to make a push for the playoffs.
Fields does have a chance to be successful. He spent most of training camp as the first-team quarterback and even started the preseason opener. According to Mike Garafolo, he ran a fair amount of plays with the first-team offense in practice this week to prepare for a possible package of plays.
“The Steelers were giving Justin Fields reps earlier in the week, even before Wilson tweaked that calf because they were toying with the idea of having a package of plays for him,” Garafolo said. “When it came clear that Wilson was not gonna be the starter, it was about expanding that package of plays and tailoring the game plan more to what Fields is comfortable with.”
Head coach Mike Tomlin told the media on Thursday, when Wilson’s calf injury was announced that they were not changing up the offense’s game plan. Both Fields and Wilson are mobile, though Fields is decidedly more so at this point of his career. So, it should be a lot of the same offense as if they had Wilson, but maybe with some additional quarterback-designed runs and things of that nature.
Under an hour now until kickoff. We should know pretty quickly how effective Fields can be in this new Steelers offense.
