The Pittsburgh Steelers have not resolved their quarterback situation as they had hoped. QB Russell Wilson started hot once he took over as the starter in Week 7. But he could not get the team over the hump in the late stages of the season, ending the year on a five-game skid, including the playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Justin Fields led the team to a 4-2 start, but it wasn’t spectacular. He limited mistakes and managed the games.
That’s more than what many people expected after Fields’ tenure with the Chicago Bears ended, though. And former Steelers OT Max Starks was keen to see how Fields looked in Pittsburgh. After all, he was present the last time Fields saw the field in a Bears uniform, the Bears’ Week 18 loss to the Green Bay Packers in 2023.
“So when he comes to Pittsburgh here, we get him first day of training camp, the first thing I’m thinking about, I’m like, what’s his footwork and where are his eyes?” said Starks on Tuesday’s episode of Movin’ The Chains on SiriusXM Radio. “Like that’s the first two things I said because that’s what I saw in the Chicago game: bad eye discipline at times. And the footwork was all over the place because he couldn’t really set his feet… And I felt he was unsure at the beginning of camp. But you could see as he got through camp, the more opportunities he got as the starter with Russell being injured, the more comfortable he felt. The footwork was cleaned up. He would go through his progressions, and I felt like he had matured.
“So then when he stepped in at the beginning of the season and they go 4-1, it was like, oh, the light has clicked for him.”
No one will argue that Justin Fields was a fantastic quarterback in 2024. He still took too many sacks (16 in six games). He also had two games where he failed to record a passing touchdown.
However, Fields improved in some key areas this year. He only threw one interception in 161 passing attempts this season. He also completed 65.8 of his passing attempts, which is, by far, a career-high.
And perhaps sitting down the rest of the season was good for Fields’ development. His time in Chicago was tumultuous at best. He did not have a good veteran quarterback to learn from. Starks thinks that’s exactly what he got in Pittsburgh with Russell Wilson.
“You come to this team where you have a chance to kind of take a step back and kind of actually learn for a change,” Starks said. “So I felt it’s been very beneficial for Justin this year. ‘Cause you seen him cool, calculated, he’s not frustrated or anything. It’s like he’s taking in information. He and Russell are talking when they come off the field. And so I really felt like that was a, this was a growth moment for Justin Fields.”
So does that mean the Steelers should simply turn the reins over to Justin Fields for the 2025 season? Well, maybe. Russell Wilson struggled down the stretch and is getting older. The free agent class doesn’t have a sure-fire guy who will come in and elevate the team for years to come. And Gerry Dulac reports the team isn’t all that interested in the free-agent group over Fields, either. The Steelers are also picking 21st in the upcoming NFL draft, which is short on quality quarterback prospects.
Why not go with a guy who’s been in your quarterback room all year? Fields has shown he can, at minimum, manage a game for the Steelers. And perhaps the games against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Indianapolis Colts can give us a glimpse of how he plays with more on his plate. He completed 78.1 percent of his passes against the Chargers on 32 attempts. Then he completed 64.7 percent of his passes against the Colts on 34 attempts the following week.
Sure, everyone wants the top prospect at quarterback in the draft or a flashy trade or signing. But perhaps the Steelers’ best option for 2025 is already in Pittsburgh in the form of Justin Fields. However, Fields might also want to know a few things before committing to the Steelers. Will the Steelers commit to allowing Fields to throw the ball consistently like against the Chargers and Colts? Will they address the wide receiver position in meaningful ways? That needs to happen for the Steelers to have a better offensive season in 2025.
