The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Long-Term Strategy: The Justin Fields and Russell Wilson Era
PITTSBURGH, PA On Saturday afternoon one of the most shocking and surprising trades of the 2024 NFL free agency broke the news across the NFL World. The Pittsburgh Steelers had traded for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
Pittsburgh sent over a 2025 6th round pick which could become a fourth round pick depending on how often Justin sees the Field for the Steelers.
Now, what makes this move so surprising isn’t that the Bears agreed to so little for a quarterback who has spent 3 years in the Windy City with two seasons as the full-time starter. It isn’t even the fact that the Steelers traded away their former first-round starting quarterback, Kenny Pickett, to the Philadelphia Eagles in the same week.
The most shocking part wasn’t even that the Steelers were bringing in a new quarterback to the Steel City, it’s the fact that they were bringing two new quarterbacks into their locker room.
On Monday, it was announced that the Steelers were agreeing to signing terms with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson, whose career is well known for his time in Seattle, is getting out of a messy divorce with his last team, the Denver Broncos, this offseason.
Wilson was traded to Denver 2 years ago from Seattle. After 10 seasons with the Seahawks, during which he was a nine-time Pro Bowler and went to two Super Bowls, becoming a Champion in Super Bowl XLVIII against the Denver Broncos.
In 2022, the Broncos were in need of a quarterback, sending over two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, along with three players to the Seahawks for Wilson’s services.
During Wilson’s first season as a Bronco, it caught everyone’s attention for all the wrong reasons. The Broncos went 5-12 and first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett was fired during the middle of the season. Wilson, in 15 games played, went 4-11 as the starter, capped off with his final start of the season being a 51-14 loss on Christmas in Los Angeles to the LA Rams.
This upcoming season, things seem brighter on the Denver horizon with new head coach Sean Payton coming in. Many felt this would be the coach to get Wilson back at his best in terms of his play and with the Broncos.
Wilson was much better in his second year, again playing in 15 games, but went 7-8 as the starter with 26 touchdowns to only eight interceptions and over 3,000 passing yards. However, not everything was all sunshine and rainbows between Payton and Wilson. According to numerous reports, they didn’t get along, which led to Wilson being benched in the final two games. He was then cut this offseason after he refused to restructure his deal, which the Broncos gave him before Wilson took a snap for them. This led to his arrival in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
For Fields, his time in Chicago was a rollercoaster. He was drafted with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 draft. Fields showed flashes of his talent as a runner and toughness to break out of tackles, as well as showcasing his arm strength and talent while with the Bears. Despite Fields’ flashes during games, he went 3-12 in his first season as the full-time starter and 5-8 in 13 games played this previous season. However, with USC QB Caleb Williams considered the cream of the crop as a quarterback in this year’s upcoming draft, the Bears had a decision to make: to ultimately move on from Fields and draft Williams, or finish out his rookie deal and see if he could take the jump everyone in the organization expected him to.
Which brings us up to now where Fields has since been traded to Pittsburgh, where he has been informed by Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin that Russell Wilson has been named the current starter. There is still a training camp in which both these QBs can battle for the starting spot while getting comfortable in their new offense.
With that being said, Russell is on a one-year deal and he will be turning 36 during the season, while Fields is heading into his 4th season of his rookie contract with a 5th-year option available before the Steelers would have to extend him or let him walk as a pending free agent.
Overall, on paper, the Steelers’ plan appears to be to let Wilson start while Fields learns the offense and develops over a year to potentially become their full-time starter. Despite his time in Chicago not going as planned, Fields is someone whose potential as a player is sky-high, which we saw in flashes for the Bears.
The same thing goes for Russ. Since he is coming off a solid year, despite the way it ended in Denver for him, he could elevate this team and offense for a year, which made the playoffs last year.
Despite the Steelers having a player who has been a starter in this league for a long time, they now have another player who could take the reins and develop into the long-term starter, and could even come in and start week 1.
Wilson and Fields seem to be embracing the stacked quarterback room, with Wilson tweeting about how good the quarterback room will be next season for the Steelers after it was announced that Fields would be joining him in the Steel City.
Out of all the problems to have in the NFL, having two quarterbacks who can be great to elite starters in the quarterback room is one of the best problems to have.
If the Steelers can turn either Wilson or Fields into the best version of themselves in the coming year or the year after, these moves will go down in the win column for Mike Tomlin and the Steelers organization going forward.