One of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ two biggest goals for the 2024 season was getting closer to figuring out a solution at the quarterback position. It didn’t need to be a 10-year solution, but somebody that they could count on for at least a few years to be competitive in the playoffs. They did not achieve that goal, and because of the way they handled it, they may have set themselves back even further.
When Russell Wilson and Justin Fields were both brought in, the biggest argument in favor of starting Fields was the fact that he is still just 25 years old. The Chicago Bears didn’t put him in great positions, so maybe the Steelers could really strike gold with Fields if they trusted in his long-term upside. Wilson may be better now, but is he good enough to win in the playoffs and, at 36 years old, will that last long enough to matter?
It turns out he wasn’t good enough to win in the playoffs, and now the Steelers are left in arguably an even worse position than they were entering the 2024 offseason.
Dan Orlovsky says this is exactly why he was publicly pulling for Fields up until Wilson started to prove people wrong in the middle of the season.
“This is one of the reasons why so many of us, and me very much so, was convinced about keeping Justin on the field because now you still don’t know. You still don’t know anything,” Orlovsky said via The Pat McAfee Show.
You can’t fault the Steelers for taking the big swing while they were rolling in the middle of the season. Most thought they were deep playoff contenders at that point. But now in hindsight, it would have been better to collect data on Fields and attempt to develop him.
“For 2025, that position’s a giant question mark,” Orlovsky said. “What do we really believe about Justin Fields? Where, if you just had him play this year, I still think you would’ve been a relatively similar team and at least you would’ve had the body of work.”
The Steelers’ repeated futility will hopefully lead them to re-evaluate their approach to the quarterback position. An approach that places more weight on the long-term viability of the franchise is probably better than continuing to apply Band-Aids.
To be fair, I think the Steelers did gather good intel on Fields, just not enough to be 100 percent confident in him for next season. They learned how he prepares and how he leads and interacts with teammates. They learned how he handles adversity, like being benched despite winning four of his six starts. When asked about Fields Tuesday, Mike Tomlin specifically praised how he handled himself this year and said that the team is open to bringing him back as its starter.
