Tag: Justin Fields

Could a conditional 4th-round pick be the reason for Fields’ benching?

Could the possibility of the Steelers owing the Chicago Bears a fourth-round pick be responsible for Justin Fields benching?

General Manager Omar Khan and Head Coach Mike Tomlin have often proven to the NFL that while every other team is playing checkers, they are playing chess. This was evident in trades like Chase Claypool, Antonio Brown to the Raiders, their strong 2024 draft class, and how they reshaped their QB room with amazing talent. One phrase that is commonly referenced when describing the Steelers’ philosophy is that Pittsburgh doesn’t rebuild—it reloads. With this in mind, it appears Justin Fields may have been benched to maintain future draft capital. 

The Chicago Bears traded their talented QB to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional sixth-round pick shortly after Russell Wilson signed a one-year deal with the team. 

The key focus here would be on the ‘conditional’ aspect of the trade. If Fields plays more than 51% of the team’s total snaps, the draft pick would improve from a sixth to a fourth-round selection. While Fields’ talent is undeniable, if the team can lean on the more consistent veteran in Wilson and underpay the Bears on the future of Pittsburgh’s franchise, Khan will make that move 10 out of 10 times. 

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Justin Fields is right, he didn’t play ‘good enough’ through six weeks

While Justin Fields has several qualities of his game to work on, his maturity and poise in accepting his benching is immaculate.

Former Steelers QB Kenny Pickett should take notes on Justin Fields’ attitude and how he handled being benched in favor of Russell Wilson. Fields, while speaking to reporters during the team’s media availability on Wednesday, acknowledged that a QB controversy may not have existed if his play had been better. While fans of the former Bears QB are quick to defend his performance due to the Steelers’ stellar 4-2 record, how many wins were truly a result of his play? 

Fields’ TD-to-INT ratio is fantastic—an eye-popping 10-1. However, there’s more to the QB’s stats than meets the eye. Fields consistently made poor decisions on passing downs, and his interception total would likely be much higher if not for defenses that seemed to drop every ball thrown their way. The young QB showcased maturity by acknowledging his poor play and understands that he gave Wilson the opportunity to take the starting job away from him. 

 

While Fields’ rushing upside is greater, Wilson brings more consistent center-QB exchanges, better accuracy, better decision-making, and an overall better chance to win football games for Pittsburgh. 

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NFL analyst with perfect 3 words on the pressure facing Steelers QB Russell Wilson

All the pressure is on Russell Wilson to perform this Sunday against the Jets.

All the talk surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback position this week has centered on Justin Fields. But as much as we can sympathize with Fields potentially losing his starting job after leading the Steelers to a 4-2 record, we haven’t really talked much about the tremendous amount of pressure that now falls on the shoulders of Russell Wilson should he get the start against the New York Jets on Sunday night.

But NFL analyst Chris Broussard is talking about it and he nailed it perfectly on the potential of Wilson starting.

“He better win.”

It really is that simple for Wilson and the Steelers. Pittsburgh knows they can go back to Fields and get similar production with the chance to improve when players get healthy. The Steelers know what they have with Fields so everything is on Wilson to show we can give Pittsburgh something more, presumably with his arm.

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Steelers’ Russell Wilson had his worst NFL season with Jets’ Nathaniel Hackett

Steelers’ Russell Wilson had his worst NFL season with Jets’ Nathaniel Hackett

After the 2022 NFL season, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson started receiving scorn for his tenure with the Denver Broncos. Well, New York Jets’ offensive assistant Nathaniel Hackett was the head coach calling his plays that year.

In 2022, Hackett had the Broncos ranking last in the NFL in points per game.

Well, seeing that the Jets needed to demote Hackett five weeks into the this season, even though he had a glorious quarterback named Aaron Rodgers at his disposal, Wilson may have gotten the bad end of the blame.

Wilson is “washed,” according to many, but his 26 touchdown, eight interception 2023 season stat line would suggest the very opposite.

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The Jets’ defense will need to account for the scramble ability of Wilson Sunday night, unless they plan on falling to 2-5. Wilson’s composure and intuitiveness supersedes that of Justin Fields, and secretly,  Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin knows this.

Wide receiver Davante Adams is elite class, but acquiring him doesn’t guarantee a Jets’ win in week seven. Ultimately, If Wilson gets his first season start, and comes out victorious over Hackett and the Jets, suffering succotash.

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Justin Fields admitted he wasn’t good enough to keep Russell Wilson from taking his job (and he’s right)

Justin Fields didn’t lie to himself about why he lost his Steelers job.

At face value, the Pittsburgh Steelers benching Justin Fields for Russell Wilson doesn’t make much sense. While Fields hasn’t played at all All-Pro-caliber level as a quarterback, Pittsburgh is currently tied for first place in the AFC North and is a firm playoff contender.

Therein lies the crux of the issue.

Fields didn’t have to play like an All-Pro to justify keeping his job over, mind you, the guy who was supposed to start in the first place before a calf injury. No, no. Fields had to be above average to show that he was better as a difference-making quarterback. That’s all.

And he wasn’t. As Fields explained on Thursday morning, he knows that, too. Which is why he wasn’t surprised to get benched:

https://twitter.com/mikedefabo/status/1846932509654970421

Kudos to Fields for admitting the truth because the numbers don’t lie.

Through six starts, Fields was just 16th in the NFL in expected points added (EPA) and completion percentage over expected (CPOE), per RBDSM.com. After a strong first three games centered around his being an athletic game manager, the more Fields got aggressive, the more mistake-prone he was. He had an 8.6 percent sack rate (sacks are a quarterback stat!) and six turnover-worthy plays (!) as the Steelers asked him to dial it up a notch over his last three starts, which only hurt them.

And in the end, while Fields remains an incredibly electric runner, his passing leaves a lot to be desired. Over 200 net combined passing yards over his last two Steelers starts does not cut it in the NFL in 2024. That is not a sustainable offense for any purported contender. It’s just a fact.

Unless you want to attribute Pittsburgh’s four victories so far to #QBWinz, you’re picking cherries for Fields.

None of this is to say that Wilson will necessarily be meaningfully better than Wilson. We all saw what went wrong with the Denver Broncos. Wilson is a shell of what he once was — a nine-time Pro Bowler. Even still, all of Wilson’s passing production in 2023 was noticeably better than Fields and much more in line with what these Steelers need if they want to compete with the AFC’s heavyweights.

It is a dimension Fields simply cannot match, even on his best days.

So, does it suck for Fields that he got benched with the Steelers mostly humming along? Yes. You feel for him. But did he justify keeping his job for a pseudo-contender in a playoff push with his play?

No, and that’s why we’ll finally see Russell Wilson take real NFL snaps in a black and gold uniform.

Somber Justin Fields addresses his pending demotion

Justin Fields said the Steelers haven’t officially demoted him but you can tell he thinks it is coming.

There’s been no official announcement but it really sounds like the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning to start Russell Wilson at quarterback this week against the New York Jets. This would mean Justin Fields, who led the team to a 4-2 record as a starter this season would be relegated to backup.

Fields was asked about the demotion and while he said there’s been nothing official, you could tell by his body language and tone he’s a man who is resigned to the fact he lost the starting job.

When asked, Fields talked like he didn’t do enough to keep the job and didn’t make enough plays. This has to be frustrating given he’s accounted for 10 total touchdowns in six games and added a spark to the offense with his legs.

https://twitter.com/C_AdamskiTrib/status/1846930748713861196

This whole plan by head coach Mike Tomlin will blow up in his face is Wilson struggles. He’s been sidelined almost all of the offseason and regular season with a calf strain, leaving Fields in charge of the offense.

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Did the center-QB snap exchange issues get Justin Fields benched?

Is Justin Fields’ benching the result of the perfect storm that is Zach Frazier’s injury, and the young QB’s botched snap exchanges?

Steelers fans, including myself, are still reeling in confusion after head coach Mike Tomlin all but directly stated that Russell Wilson would be the starting quarterback in Week 7. While this information is being confirmed through practice reps, it doesn’t provide fans of the 4-2 Justin Fields any sense of clarity. 

There are some rumors and conspiracy theories, such as the Steelers wanting to avoid giving the Bears a conditional fourth-round pick, Justin Fields being available for trade before the deadline, or even issues that haunted the young QB earlier in the season: fumbles on the center-quarterback exchange. 


Fields has been on the receiving end of some seriously botched snaps, some caused by the center, but most by the quarterback. With C Zach Frazier OUT due to injury and a new, unproven center taking his place, Wilson, who has 188 career games of experience under center, seems like the responsible option in terms of ball security, rather than a quarterback with proven snap-handling issues. 

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Steelers have new starting quarterback at practice

Russell Wilson took the first-team reps at Steelers Wednesday practice.

On Wednesday, several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers acknowledged that it was indeed Russell Wilson who took first-team reps at practice that day. This is something head coach Mike Tomlin noted was a real possibility this week and it has now come to fruition.

The Steelers are preparing to square off against the New York Jets on Sunday night and we should know on Friday afternoon who the starting quarterback will be. Justin Fields has started the first six games of the season for Pittsburgh and led the team to a 4-2 record. Nevertheless, Tomlin has maintained the door is ajar for Wilson regardless of Fields’ success.

If we were betting, we would wager that Tomlin would give Wilson the nod as the starter but still include Fields in the game plan. We don’t like this from a schematic standpoint as Fields coming in sort of telegraphs the play but no one should be surprised if Wilson is the starter this week and going forward.

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Sneaky reason the Steelers should start Russell Wilson vs the Jets

There might be a method to Mike Tomlin’s madness with starting Russell Wilson this week.

When Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin addresses the media on Friday, we should have our answer as to whether it is Russell Wilson or Justin Fields starting versus the New York Jets this Sunday night. Tomlin said on Tuesday he was leaving the option open for Wilson now that he is 100 percent healthy.

It might seem insane for Tomlin to sit Fields down after going 4-2 as a starter and scoring 10 total touchdowns. But there might be a method to his madness. Just hear me out.

The Jets are a bad football team. They just fired their head coach last week after an awful start. Tomlin could view this game at home in prime time as a very winnable game and he can afford to play Wilson if the team is planning to trade one of their starting quarterbacks before the November 5 trade deadline.

If the team wants to trade Fields, why not start Wilson this week just to see what you have and be sure it’s safe to deal Fields. Or maybe the team wants to trade Wilson and wants to give him a game to show out and make an impression on a prospective team.

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Report: Jets could face new starting quarterback vs. Steelers

Report: Jets could face new starting quarterback vs. Steelers

Potentially lost the everything surrounding the Jets this week is this: They might face a new quarterback new week.

In the midst of trading for All-Pro receiver Davante Adams on Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said a head-turning comment.

Per Steelers Wire, their head coach Mike Tomlin said veteran quarterback Russell Wilson is “in consideration” to start against the Jets in Week 7. The two teams faceoff on “Sunday Night Football” next weekend.

“We’re looking hard at it this week and it’s in consideration,” Tomlin said in his weekly press conference. “I’m sure at some point [he’ll get first-team reps]. I hadn’t decided who gets the ball first. That sort of minutiae hasn’t been decided.”

It remains to be seen who does start against the Jets. Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Wilson will be the one getting first-team reps in practice this week over Justin Fields who led the Steelers to a 4-2 start to the season.

Jets Wire will provide updates as information is made available.