What are your thoughts on the Steelers QB situation?

[SirAndrew]

Fields is a bust who isn’t good enough, and Wilson is washed up. It’s simple as that, people are overthinking this. The Steelers will win games with defense and Tomlin’s coaching, but they haven’t solved their QB problem. 

[thenorthremembers]

They are paying less combined for Russell Wilson and Justin Fields this year than they did for just Mitch Trubisky last year.   From a roster management perspective, the moves they have made to upgrade the QB position have been borderline masterful.    

 

Personally, I don't know where this narrative started where people think Justin Fields is somehow better than Russell Wilson.    Justin Fields best year in the NFL is about as good as Russell's worst (two years ago with the Broncos).     The narratives in the NFL are incredibly hyperbolic.  Wilson wasnt great in Denver, but his first year came with maybe the most moronic head coach of all time.   His second year was much better.   Aside from his running ability, I am not sure what the hype is around Fields.  

 

Long story short.  The Wilson move was good.  The Fields move came cheap, and essentially got them Kenny Pickett with legs.   They moved on from a bad 1st round pick quickly, upgraded the position, and saved money.  Very good front office work. 

[JerseyBills]

2 hours ago, Paup 1995MVP said:

Come on Jersey.  Have you watched either guy play the past couple seasons?   Fields will get swallowed up by the AFC North.  And Wilson has fallen off a cliff the past few years.  If say Washington or the Giants had made these moves everyone would be saying they are a 5 win team at best.  Because it’s Pittsburgh, and King Tomlin it has to be the bomb.  Everyone seems to revere Tomlin.  But McDermott gets all sorts of flack on here, when he has been a much better coach of a much better team over the past 7 years.  

Might have worded that poorly lol but I'm just saying for a team that basically just drafted a 1st rd QB , they got some potential to work with. Especially Fields, another 1st rder cause he's younger. He could def have some untapped potential 

[Dillenger4]

Great moves by the Steelers. They have a pounding good RB room, two QB's that will play much better than what they had last season and still they made the playoffs. They can run the ball and they have a good Defense. Russ and Fields will make them a tough team to beat IMO.

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

20 hours ago, BarleyNY said:

I hope Wilson is good enough this season that the Stillers pay him large and he keeps Fields on the bench. Then next season I hope Fields moves on to the NFC where he finds success while Wilson totally implodes. 

I like it. Ill add to it:

 

Russ carries them to a postseason birth,  in a meaningless week 18 game fields starts and looks incredible.

 

And even though Russ started all season Tomlin makes the unthinkable decision of starting fields over russ in the wild card round.

 

The decision backfires terribly, as the steelers lose in the first round with fields having an underwhelming performance.  

 

Pittsburgh fans are befuddled . Determined to see this through they bring russ and Tomlin back for one more year and ship fields off to the NFC where he undoubtedly looks like a hall of famer.

 

 

[Mango]

20 hours ago, SoTier said:

I haven't watched a lot of Fields, but I think he has a skill set reminiscent of Russ in his prime, so they can both work in the same type of offense.  My guess is that Russ will start the season with Fields as his backup.  If he can't recreate the form he had in Seattle, then Fields will get his shot.   Even if Russ excels and Fields doesn't see much playing time, I think that the Stillers may re-sign Fields for the future if he looks good in practice.

 

Just to add on, I hope they go 9-8 with 6 of their wins against Cleveland, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. 

[4BillsintheBurgh]

Couple things on this - I think Wilson, Fields and Allen is better straight up and has more upside than Pickett, Trubisky and Rudolph.

 

Tomlin is looking at Wilson as the leading guy now: 

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-steelers-russell-wilson-starting-quarterback-job-coach-mike-tomlin/

 

The Steelers D (when Watt is healthy) doesn't need a lot of help. They had some ilb injuries last year that hurt them also. To Tomlin's credit, he does seem to have a knack for keeping the team on course. He has also handled many personalities in the past, so I don't know if pre-madonna Russ is going to be as large a problem as he has in the past couple of years. The Steelers have an established culture and the players to back it up, so I don't see him being able to pull the stuff he has in the past.

 

In the end I think the Steelers got better with this qb swap. They also dumped Dionte Johnson and Allen Robinson so they should be looking for a wr early. The wildcard will be what Arthur Smith wants to do in his first year. I assume they will be picking a center in the first three rounds as well as a wr, since Smith likes to run the ball.

 

Omar Kahn is making his mark on this team now, and the dynamic with Tomlin and the rest of the front office will determine how far they go on together. Ownership is getting tired of not winning playoff games. I'm hoping for more non-playoff seasons for the whole load of Steeler folk. I would love nothing more for them to run the ball well, play good defense and not make the playoffs.

[msw2112]

18 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Fields has some of the worst field awareness in the NFL. If he wasn’t such a good athlete, he would have been benched long ago. But he makes a few highlight runs and people think he has some untapped talent. 
 

Great athlete, great arm, horrible awareness. He fumbles like peterman throws picks. As long as Wilson is reasonable competent (which he will be) Fields will stay on the bench 

 

Fields has a lot of untapped talent, but it also may be untappable.  He has all the athletic ability in the world and seems to be a decent kid, but he just doesn't have it between the ears at game speed.  That can work in college on a team that is much more talented than all of its opponents, but not in the NFL.  Lots of guys have had careers like that.  EJ Manuel, JP Losman, Mitch Trubisky, and Zach Wilson come to mind, but the list of these types of guys is long.  Bryce Young may be working his way onto that list and I would not be shocked to see Caleb Williams on that list in the future.  Note that Mac Jones is NOT on this list.  He does not have all the athletic ability in the world and he's not a decent kid.

 

Back to the original post, the Steelers' QB room is now full of has-beens and never-weres.  Not a great prescription for success.

Edited March 28 by msw2112

[4BillsintheBurgh]

21 hours ago, BarleyNY said:

I hope Wilson is good enough this season that the Stillers pay him large and he keeps Fields on the bench. Then next season I hope Fields moves on to the NFC where he finds success while Wilson totally implodes. 

I think it's 1.2 million for Wilson from the Steelers, the Broncos will be paying him $37 million regardless of how Russ plays.

[BarleyNY]

4 minutes ago, 4BillsintheBurgh said:

I think it's 1.2 million for Wilson from the Steelers, the Broncos will be paying him $37 million regardless of how Russ plays.

I was talking about the Steelers paying him large on his next contract, after the Denver offsets run out. 

[Logic]

Nothing says "offensive competence" quite like combining Russell Wilson with Arthur Smith. 

Add in a dash of angry George Pickens and you have the recipe for some knee-slapping entertainment. Not from the product on the field, mind you, but from the absolutely hilarious level of ineptitude on display.

Personally, I'm just happy the Steelers seem pathologically unwilling to try to get a true franchise QB to go with their elite defense. They took a swing with Pickett, it didn't work, and now they're like "give us the ghost of Russell Wilson please". You love to see it.

[Paup 1995MVP]

1 hour ago, JerseyBills said:

Might have worded that poorly lol but I'm just saying for a team that basically just drafted a 1st rd QB , they got some potential to work with. Especially Fields, another 1st rder cause he's younger. He could def have some untapped potential 

I will give you that on Fields.  There is potential.  This will be year 4 for him I believe.  Maybe it will come together.  If nothing else he has good wheels.

[Albany,n.y.]

4 hours ago, SirAndrew said:

Fields is a bust who isn’t good enough, and Wilson is washed up. It’s simple as that, people are overthinking this. The Steelers will win games with defense and Tomlin’s coaching, but they haven’t solved their QB problem. 

NFL GMs may not be that good at recognizing a QB bust coming out of college, but they are good at recognizing a QB bust at the NFL level.  That's why it's virtually impossible to take a busted 1st or 2nd round and get anything good out of him.  If the NFL GMs hadn't considered Field a bust the Bears would have gotten a lot more when they traded him than they did (a 2025 6th that can become a 4th).  The rest of the league didn't consider him starting material & the team that traded for him gave up virtually nothing for a backup with starters experience on the last year of his rookie contract.  

[SoTier]

7 hours ago, Paup 1995MVP said:

Come on Jersey.  Have you watched either guy play the past couple seasons?   Fields will get swallowed up by the AFC North.  And Wilson has fallen off a cliff the past few years.  If say Washington or the Giants had made these moves everyone would be saying they are a 5 win team at best.  Because it’s Pittsburgh, and King Tomlin it has to be the bomb.  Everyone seems to revere Tomlin.  But McDermott gets all sorts of flack on here, when he has been a much better coach of a much better team over the past 7 years.  

 

The difference between Pittsburgh and Washington and/or the Giants is that the Stillers have an elite defense, an excellent running game, and a solid OL and decent receivers.  IOW, they're a much better team than either the Commanders or Giants.    In fact, the Stillers have the same kind of team that Wilson had during his successful seasons with the Seahawks. 

 

[stuvian]

as someone deeply invested in Mason Rudolph jerseys I'm not feeling too good right now

[transient]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:19 PM, BarleyNY said:

I hope Wilson is good enough this season that the Stillers pay him large and he keeps Fields on the bench. Then next season I hope Fields moves on to the NFC where he finds success while Wilson totally implodes. 

Yeah… well I hope they both implode while Trubisky lights it up in the 4th quarter every game because the Bills are annihilating their opponents weekly, and he parlays that into a SB ring and a huge contract as an NFC starter with a reasonable degree of success.
 

The following season I hope the same scenario plays out with Fields after he’s cut from the Steelers and signs on as the Bills backup while the Steelers flounder with a Zach Wilson-level FA replacement. 

[BarleyNY]

19 minutes ago, transient said:

Yeah… well I hope they both implode while Trubisky lights it up in the 4th quarter every game because the Bills are annihilating their opponents weekly, and he parlays that into a SB ring and a huge contract as an NFC starter with a reasonable degree of success.
 

The following season I hope the same scenario plays out with Fields after he’s cut from the Steelers and signs on as the Bills backup while the Steelers flounder with a Zach Wilson-level FA replacement. 

 

Fields will be a FA after this season unless the Steelers extend him or pick up his $25M option (which is incredibly unlikely).

[buffblue]

I wouldn't want Russell Wilson on my roster in any way, no matter how cheap. The Fields deal similarly has little financial or compensation risk but at least he has some upside. 

6 hours ago, Logic said:

Nothing says "offensive competence" quite like combining Russell Wilson with Arthur Smith. 

Add in a dash of angry George Pickens and you have the recipe for some knee-slapping entertainment. Not from the product on the field, mind you, but from the absolutely hilarious level of ineptitude on display.

Personally, I'm just happy the Steelers seem pathologically unwilling to try to get a true franchise QB to go with their elite defense. They took a swing with Pickett, it didn't work, and now they're like "give us the ghost of Russell Wilson please". You love to see it.

This x 1000 percent

[billsbackto81]

 

[cDAVIS]

I live in Erie PA so personally I hope they both play like a dumpster fire.