There are many different ways to lead a group of men. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that is going to be effective in every environment to get a message across to every individual. Some will scream and shout and give the rah-rah speeches, while others lead by example, and those are just two of the many ways to be an effective leader.
Justin Fields is still just 25 and still very much growing as a player and leader, especially now that he is in a new organization with a much more established culture and way of doing things. He seems to take a different approach to leadership, or one that is more unique to what you are used to seeing from leaders of a football team.
On Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, Heyward and Fields were discussing the leadership of Russell Wilson and how he is constantly supporting the team from the sideline, even while he is out injured.
Fields described the leadership dynamic between the two and how being around Wilson has been great for him. Wilson has a wealth of experience and knowledge that Fields is eager to learn from. Despite certain members of the media trying to paint a picture of a potential locker room fracture in the future, it really does seem like a great situation in that quarterback room. Fields also stated his preference for a more individual approach to leadership.
“Russ is super vocal, super boom, boom boom, always talking like each and every day,” Fields said. “I like to kind of make my rounds kind of behind the scenes, try to go talk to guys individually, see how they fit…But I think we’ve done a great job balancing that part of it.”
That led Heyward to complimenting Fields on his leadership style, and providing a nice little anecdotal example to support what he was saying.
“I will say one thing with your leadership that I just saw the other day,” Heyward said. “We’re in the middle of practice, it’s towards the end. We’re doing third down period, and you pull Beanie Bishop over to the side, and you just explained to him what you were looking at and how he should try to hide his coverage a little bit more, or his blitzing. I just thought that was very cool because not everybody gets to be loud and share with the group. But sometimes it’s more individual like you said, so I think that goes a long way, too. It’s sometimes behind the scenes as much as it is in front of the cameras and stuff.”
Hayden Walsh, the co-host of the show, then asked Heyward if that is something that is seen frequently. Heyward cited some things Ben Roethlisberger used to do.
“It’s not gonna be given from a coach,” Heyward said. “It’s gotta be given from a player.”
Coaches can impart plenty of knowledge, but at the end of the day they are not the ones out of the field. That is why the individual leadership style that Heyward described coming from Fields is so important. Fields is the one that reads the defense and processes all the little information that he sees on tape in real-time while on the field. If he can tell those little tips and tricks to certain players, they will be better off for it.
It is definitely a unique situation for Fields, with him being named the backup just days before Wilson suffered a calf injury that’s had him out a month and counting. The team is rallying around him as they continue to win, and he is growing in new ways as a player and as a leader of men. It’s becoming more apparent by the day that the Steelers struck gold when they parted ways with a future conditional sixth-round pick for this young and talented quarterback.
