The Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback battle between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson is still ongoing, with neither signal-caller exactly running away with the competition this summer. While it’s not a great situation to be in, the Steelers reportedly like it much better than their last situation.
Pittsburgh remarkably found a way to win 19 games over the last two seasons with Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky sitting atop the Steelers depth chart. Publicly, the Steelers coaching staff and front office expressed support for their top passers and rarely hinted at any frustrations with either player.
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- Pittsburgh Steelers passing stats 2023 (ESPN): 84.6 QB rating, 63.8% completion rate, 3,421 passing yards, 13-9 TD-INT, 36 sacks taken in 17 games
Yet the second the opportunity arose, Pittsburgh ditched Pickett, Trubisky and Mason Rudolph this offseason and replaced them with Fields and Wilson. While the reports from Steelers training camp on both passers aren’t glowing, the team still seems to have a strong preference for where it’s at now.
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On the latest episode of the Inside Coverage podcast, senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports shared that the Steelers are “overjoyed” to have moved on from last season’s quarterback room.
“They are like, overjoyed, to have move moved on from the entire quarterback depth chart in 2023. I think part of what was such an anchor for them was, they were like, there’s nothing dynamic about this. We don’t have a downfield passing game, we don’t have quarterbacks who can create big plays. We are stuck. We are so cornered with the depth chart we have now.”
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ feeling of their QB room in 2023 vs now
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Pickett is the very definition of a non-playmaking quarterback who also doesn’t have the arm strength to really challenge defenses downfield. As for Trubisky, he’s proven throughout his career that his best role is as a backup quarterback who occasionally takes over as a fill-in starter.
Wilson still might be a version of that. He’s lost the athleticism that made him dangerous in the pocket and he doesn’t have nearly as much zip on his passes as he used to. However, Fields’ athleticism makes him a dangerous playmaker with an elite physical tool that can be incorporated into the offense.
So, while he might take more sacks and will have a few more turnovers, he gives the Steelers offense a much higher ceiling. For a coaching staff that believes its offense was previously anchored down by its quarterbacks, that’s a huge change for the 2024 season.
