It was a footnote on a major headline. The Chicago Bears were trading QB Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Once thought to fetch a Day 2 selection, the Bears practically gave him away. A conditional 2025 sixth-round pick for the Steelers to get Fields.
The condition? That sixth rounder would jump to a fourth rounder if Fields played 51% of the team’s offensive snaps. At the time, an unlikely scenario considering Pittsburgh was likely to start QB Russell Wilson. But Wilson proceeded to miss most of training camp and the first six games of the regular season with a calf injury, allowing Fields to play nearly 100 percent of the offense’s snaps.
After the Steelers’ win over the Cleveland Browns Sunday, Fields’ snaps now sit under that 50-percent threshold. Unless something drastic changes over the final four regular season games, Fields starting multiple games, he will end the year under that mark. Meaning, Pittsburgh will only ow Chicago a sixth-round pick in the deal.
According to PFR’s snap counts, Fields has logged 407 snaps out of the Steelers’ total of 890. That puts Fields seeing the field 45.7 percent of the time. While he’s still seeing action in a package of plays, one that wasn’t used Sunday, it won’t be enough to put him back over 50 percent. He’d need to see a serious volume of snaps for that to change and the only way that’s going to happen is if Wilson gets hurt. Even if Wilson struggles during a tougher schedule ahead, don’t expect Pittsburgh to make a late-season quarterback switch.
Wilson has logged 481 snaps this year, making seven starts to Fields’ six. Third-stringer Kyle Allen is responsible for the other two, briefly subbing in for Fields during the Steelers’ Week 5 loss to the Dallas Cowboys while Fields was checked for a concussion. Allen completed one pass for 19 yards.
No Steelers offensive player has logged 100 percent of the team’s snaps this season. LT Dan Moore Jr. comes closest but missed time against the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants. The rest of the Steelers’ line bounced around early in the season before settling in at the midway point. LG Isaac Seumalo missed the first month, rookie C Zach Frazier missed two games, RG James Daniels was lost early in the year, and RT Broderick Jones played just one drive against the Denver Broncos in Week 2, benched after a penalty-filled possession.
In fact, no Steeler defensively has logged every single snap either. LB Patrick Queen comes closest, but he’s missed two of them. Pittsburgh took him off the field for the Jets’ final and meaningless snap in Week 7 while Queen sat out a play in Week 12 against Baltimore.
Joining the Ironman, 100-percent club is difficult but is a feat achieved by 28 offensive players this season. A couple of quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford, but mostly offensive linemen. Ex-Steeler and current Los Angeles Rams Kevin Dotson is on the list. The defensive list is predictably smaller. Just four have in Colts LB Zaire Franklin, Rams S Quentin Lake (son of Steelers S Carnell Lake, an Ironman himself), Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie, and Panthers S Xavier Woods.
For Fields, this update is really a non-update. The sixth-round pick originally agreed to will likely remain so. If the unforeseen happens and it gets bumped to a fourth, the trade will still have been well worth it for Pittsburgh. But it’s a footnote to nearly close and something we’ll confirm once the Steelers’ regular season officially ends.
