Justin Fields On Offensive Freedom: ‘If We Have A Run Play Call, Then We’re Going To Stick With That Play Call’

For a new quarterback, a new coordinator, and a lot of moving parts on a young Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense, QB Justin Fields hasn’t been handed the keys. He might be behind the wheel, but Arthur Smith is riding shotgun, the offense slowly opening up week-over-week. In his weekly Thursday media scrum, Fields explained what he can – and can’t – do.

“It just depends on the play call,” he said via a team-provided transcript. “Yeah, but if we have a run play call, then we’re going to stick with that play call.”

Fields isn’t at Ben Roethlisberger status with the ability to essentially run his own offense. Frankly, those types of quarterbacks are going extinct in an era of offenses going faster, playbooks getting watered down, college offenses that had been using wacky pictures and signals to call plays, and in-radio helmet communication to connect coordinator to quarterback.

Don’t consider Fields complaining. Working under an established coordinator like Smith, he’s good with whatever call comes through his helmet.

“I put my full trust in Arthur [Smith] to get us in the right play at the right time. So whatever he calls, I’m going to roll with.”

Smith was hired due to his experience. After two cycles of first-time NFL play callers in Randy Fichtner and Matt Canada, Pittsburgh searched for someone established. Smith had called plays for the past five seasons, two successful years in Tennessee and three less-successful seasons in Atlanta.

While Fields is limited, he has some control over the offense at the line.

“There are some plays that I can check into a different play versus a different coverage or a certain look. But most of our run plays, there’s some ‘cans’ on it, depending on what look we get. So it really depends on the play calls.”

It sounds like Fields has more freedom in the passing game than the running game to adjust a route or a call. Of course, the RPOs the Steelers run automatically give Fields flexibility to run or pass based on coverage. His “can” comment refers to having two plays called in the huddle. If the first one looks like a dud, the quarterback is able to “can” the play, a signal to run the other play. In his own media interview, Smith expanded on that thought.

“Most plays every offense I’ve been in or package, whatever you will call it, you may call two plays,” Smith said via a team-issued transcript. “You have alerts. That’s kind of become NFL 101. There’s not anything where you say, ‘Hey, let’s go run into an ambush.’ No offense I’ve been a part of has ever been that hard-headed.”

Essentially, Smith puts the food on the table and Fields picks what he wants. It’s a limited freedom. Over time, as the two learn and grow and simply become battle-tested together, Fields will have more autonomy. For now, Pittsburgh is getting back to basics, starting with a need to get the run game going. With the play call that comes from Smith.