The Pittsburgh Steelers gave QB Justin Fields seven snaps on offense last Thursday against the Cleveland Browns. It was the most time Fields has seen the field since head coach Mike Tomlin opted for QB Russell Wilson as the starter against the New York Jets in Week 7.
And Fields did rip off a 30-yard run that eventually led to a Steelers touchdown. But what everyone remembers was a moment late in the fourth quarter. The Steelers were facing a crucial third down while nursing a one-point lead. And rather than Wilson, Fields was in the game. He attempted to find WR George Pickens for the conversion, but the ball fell incomplete. The Steelers punted and the Browns scored the game-winning touchdown on that next drive.
Do the Steelers feel like they should have approached the situation differently?
“No, we felt good about it, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference per video from the Steelers YouTube channel. “It was a weighty moment. It was third and medium. They had 11 guys within five yards of the line of scrimmage. We had GP matched up on a corner not named Denzel Ward. That feels like more than a 50-50 ball to me. And so we were comfortable with that decision.”
Based on Tomlin’s explanation, it appeared the Browns fully expected Fields to attempt to pick up the first down with his legs. And that’s why the Steelers opted to go with the pass. They felt like they had a matchup they could exploit. They just failed to do so.
It just feeds into the conundrum Tomlin and the Steelers face on a weekly basis. They opted to pivot to Wilson as their starting quarterback. And overall, that’s been a good move. The Steelers are 4-1 with Wilson as their starting quarterback. He’s thrown for seven touchdowns in five games and even added one rushing touchdown.
But the Steelers evidently believe that Justin Fields is good enough to warrant playing time. His athleticism is worlds above Wilson’s at this point in their respective careers. And that’s something they want to utilize on the field. The problem is that the execution is not going well.
Rather than a smooth operation, the Steelers struggled at points pivoting between the two quarterbacks last Thursday. And in one of the biggest moments of the game, it failed to make the needed play.
That doesn’t seem to be derailing the Steelers’ plans, though. Tomlin said that the team loves the problems a Justin Fields package creates for their opponents versus the struggles the Steelers are dealing with at the moment. So we should all expect to see this Fields package continue to evolve in the coming weeks.
NFL reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala even thinks that Fields might slot back in as the starting quarterback sometime in 2024. If that happens, hopefully the Steelers’ coaching staff will show the same confidence in Fields as they did on that third-down attempt against Cleveland.
