Justin Fields didn’t play last Sunday for the Steelers, the first time that was the case since debuting his package of plays. He had checked into the game for offensive plays in three consecutive weeks, touching the ball at meaningful moments. The Steelers had opportunities to play him last week, if they wanted to, but passed on it. Why was that so, and what does that mean moving forward, especially in this stretch potentially without George Pickens?
Ray Fittipaldo believes Pickens’ absence could spur the Steelers to use Fields more. Appearing on 93.7, he argues that yards will be at a premium, and Fields is one of their best tools for manufacturing them. Thanks to his great athleticism, defenses have to respect his ability to run, but he can still throw, if necessary.
“If teams are gonna be playing the Steelers man-to-man on third downs, to me, that’s the best place to use Justin Fields”, Fittipaldo said. “Because if people have their backs turned and you have three or four guys out in coverage, that’s where a quarterback can beat you with his legs”.
Of course, it’s not as simple as that for the Steelers, and he knows that. The team has acknowledged that there have been some issues about when and how to employ Justin Fields. Not every team takes its starting quarterback off the field for a play or two for a different look, after all.
“The difficult thing is, you’ve got to catch them at the right time. Do you keep Russ [Wilson] on the field and do you split Russ out so they don’t know what’s coming?”, Fittipaldo added. “But I think Justin [Fields] could very much be in play in this game when you’re talking about manufacturing yards on the road. He’s a perfect guy to do that in certain downs and distances”.
Now, the Steelers’ on-field results with Justin Fields have been spotty but intriguing. One can readily recall his 30-yard run, or the close-out carry from two weeks ago. But many second guessed the Steelers’ decision to let him throw deep in a critical late-game situation against the Browns. The fact that it helped contribute to their only loss since Russell Wilson took over didn’t help.
But the Steelers put a package of plays together for Justin Fields every week and scenarios to employ them. For whatever reason, those scenarios did not arise last week—perhaps they were leading by too much, which is my hunch. But I don’t think there was anything special about him not playing.
I do think there’s a case to be made that the conditions for playing Fields are more likely to arise without George Pickens. The Steelers will struggle to pick up yards more frequently without him, which should be an uncontroversial thought.
I’m not sure we will see the Steelers use Justin Fields in any special or heightened way just because of Pickens, though. With the way they had already been using him, it was contextually irrelevant to Pickens for the most part, anyway.
