Coming off a 2023 season in which the Pittsburgh Steelers used three different starting quarterbacks and went 10-7 to reach the playoffs, GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin set out to reshape the quarterback room of the Black and Gold.
Out the door went Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. In came Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen, giving the Steelers a great deal of experience and upside.
While Wilson was expected to be the starter and was named that coming out of training camp, a calf injury put him on the shelf to start the season, giving Fields an opportunity. To his credit, Fields has taken that opportunity and run with it. Showing growth from his time in Chicago, he has started to play consistent, smart football.
He’s part of a QB renaissance in a new situation, and with his strong play in a stable environment, Fields was named one of the 10 best offseason acquisitions in the NFL by analyst Tom Blair of NFL.com.
Fields landed at No. 7 in the top-10 offseason acquisitions with Baltimore running back Derrick Henry at No. 1. Other quarterbacks include Minnesota’s Sam Darnold at No. 2, Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins at No. 5 and Green Bay’s Malik Willis at No. 10.
“Fields doesn’t have to win games by himself or even play like a top-10 QB every week to pay off the Steelers’ low-stakes dice roll on him. He just has to bring a higher floor and ceiling to the position than Kenny Pickett did the past two seasons. Through five weeks, he’s comfortably cleared that low bar,” Blair writes for NFL.com. “OK, so Fields has only topped 300 passing yards once so far with Pittsburgh, in Week 4’s loss to the Colts — that’s the same number of times Pickett did it in 25 starts. And, yeah, Fields lost two in a row — but he also recorded a passer rating of 90-plus (104.0 vs. Indy and 93.3 against the Cowboys on Sunday) for the fourth and fifth time in a Steelers uniform, giving him one more such game than Pickett ever had.
“Fields is taking exceptional care of the ball, putting up easily the lowest interception rate (0.7 percent) of his career. He can also run like few Pittsburgh quarterbacks ever have, with his 172 rushing yards already ranking as the seventh-most in a season by any Steelers quarterback. Perhaps Fields will be replaced by Russell Wilson at some point this season. Even so, he helped Pittsburgh start 3-0, which should serve as a reminder to GMs everywhere: If someone’s out there trying to dump a former first-round QB, take the call.”
It wasn’t much of a surprise to see the Steelers interested in Fields throughout the offseason, considering the attention that Tomlin paid him during the Ohio State Pro Day ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft. Add the fact that Fields has an impressive combination of size, speed and arm strength and it was exactly what Tomlin has been searching for at the position in recent years.
Landing Fields for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft was just the cherry on top. Getting a talent like Fields for such a low price was a win for the Steelers.
So far, he’s proven it to be a great investment, too. Outside of Week 5 against the Dallas Cowboys, Fields is playing well in Arthur Smith’s scheme. He’s avoiding the mistakes, hitting some plays down the field, not taking many sacks, and is adding a rushing element to the offense that the Steelers haven’t had since the days of Kordell Stewart.
That was a long time ago.
Fields has been a spark for the Steelers. Though he’s not exactly lighting it up in the passing game, he’s made plenty of plays early in the season and shown that he’s an upgrade over what the Steelers previously had at the position.
He’s still learning and growing, and there will be some bumps in the road, but it was a sound offseason move by the Steelers, and so far through the first five weeks of the season it has grown into a great move for the Black and Gold.
