When the Pittsburgh Steelers traded Justin Fields, they only relinquished a conditional sixth-round draft pick. The conditions saw that if Fields were to play 50 percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps, the Steelers would owe the Chicago Bears a 2025 draft pick not in the sixth round but the fourth round.
And I can assure you by all reasonable logic that that plays no role in the Steelers’ current quarterback dynamic. Amid reports that they may start Russell Wilson this week, Mike Tomlin isn’t worrying about mid-round draft swaps. And there is one simple reason for that: if Justin Fields were actually the franchise’s answer, finding that out would be worth a lot more than a fourth-round pick.
I have seen numerous people mention the trade dynamics as one consideration in the Steelers’ thought process. It simply is not. With that said, I am pleased to say that there has been very little of that coming from our own readership when the topic has come up. So this particular article is not preaching to our regular readers, but that narrative has been out there. Most will feel I’m preaching to the choir, and largely I’m sure I am, or at least I hope so. But this is for those who might think otherwise and who might stumble across this.
The decision is far too big to allow something like that factor into who will start at quarterback. That isn’t to say that teams never make such considerations because even the Steelers do. Remember when the Steelers released WR Donte Moncrief, for example? While Moncrief turned out to be a bad signing, they released him because not doing so would have cost them a conditional draft pick. But starting Russell Wilson over Justin Fields has nothing to do with preserving a fourth-round pick instead of a sixth.
The Steelers are in quarterback purgatory and have been since Ben Roethlisberger retired. I’m sure many would argue that they have been there since before then, at least since 2019. While I’m sure the Steelers knew that signing Russell Wilson was no home run, and certainly not a long-term answer, they also knew that Justin Fields was a gamble.
Fields is still young and has pedigree, and his athleticism is overwhelmingly obvious. But if the Steelers thought right now that he clearly has what it takes to be a franchise quarterback, even if not right now but in the near future, there is zero chance they would sit him. And they certainly wouldn’t do that because of a two-round difference on a Day-3 draft pick.
I can’t offer hard proof for the point I’m making. Even the team coming out and saying that the trade terms played no role in starting Russell Wilson over Justin Fields would not amount to proof because they’re just words. But I can make the claim that it is the only conclusion that stands up to any kind of logic.
And that includes logic specific to the Steelers. This is a team that traded a fifth-round pick for Nick Vannett. If you pull a move like that, you are not overly worried about a fourth-round pick. Even less so these days when there are so many ways to move around the draft board. If the Steelers really wanted a fourth-round pick and kept Fields playing, they could manufacture a way. This is purely about football assessment and nothing else.
