Justin Fields came off the bench Sunday for a few plays against the Baltimore Ravens for the first time since Russell Wilson took back the starting quarterback role. All three plays were runs, and two of them were runs by Fields.
That doesn’t mean the Steelers view him exclusively as a runner or a gadget player in those packages.
“Obviously there’s a fine line to do it,” OC Arthur Smith said Tuesday via a video from TribLive’s Chris Adamski on X. “I don’t view Justin in this role as a gadget guy. I mean to me, we’ve got two starting quarterbacks and he’s a hell of a football player.”
Arthur Smith was defensive of Justin Fields after Steelers losses. Reports from notable insiders around the media indicated that Fields had a lot of support inside the building to remain the starter, and it seemed like Smith was among those in favor of riding the hot hand. Mike Tomlin reportedly went “lone ranger” in putting Russell Wilson back into the starting lineup.
Before he was benched, Fields had taken some steps forward as an NFL passer with a 66.3 completion percentage and five touchdowns to one interception.
Smith has some experience with using two quarterbacks from his time with the Tennessee Titans.
“I’ve done it a little bit in my past. We did it down the stretch with Ryan Tannehill and Marcus Mariota, but different situation,” Smith said.
With Fields starting six games, there’s a lot less guess work to determine how effective he can be within the offense, and there isn’t as much necessary preparation either. It’s a little surprising that it took four games to see the first package for Fields.
According to Fields after the Ravens game, the Steelers were planning to use him against the Commanders, but it never quite worked out to get him in the game.
So why did they do it against the Ravens?
“When you have the opportunity to wrap things up, and it’s the way the game was going, to throw something at ’em and put another dynamic football player out there, that certainly helped us in situational football,” Smith said.
Smith doesn’t view him as a gadget player, and the Steelers certainly don’t want to telegraph read options or run plays when he is in the game. Next time we see Fields, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets to take a shot down the field or get his arm involved in some way.
With how unsuccessful the Steelers have been in the red zone with Russell Wilson, I wouldn’t be surprised if they start working Fields in for those situations. We will just have to see how that evolves, but the correct balance of Wilson and Fields could help the Steelers’ offense become a big headache for opposing defenses.
