Mark Madden: Steelers have had a perfect offseason, choosing progress over saving face
By: MARK MADDEN
This much should be made clear about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ reconstructed quarterback room: There’s a pecking order.
Russell Wilson is the starter. He’s not on a short leash or any leash.
Justin Fields didn’t come to Pittsburgh to compete with Wilson. He’s clearly the backup and in a position to assume the job after Wilson’s tenure.
Fields only cost the Steelers a sixth-round draft choice, so there’s no pressure to play him. (Quite the opposite, in fact: If Fields plays 51% of the Steelers’ offensive snaps in 2024, that pick gets upgraded to the fourth round.)
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith could utilize a package of plays that features Fields and his mobility. But barring injury to Wilson, Fields won’t start.
Any attempt to conjure up scenarios where Fields “beats out” Wilson is mindless word drool. It won’t happen.
I see plenty of media, mostly national, already debating the “quarterback battle” in Pittsburgh. If you’re inventing fiction to talk or write about, you’re not very good at talking or writing.
Wilson is on a one-year deal. He can earn another contract with good play. (Or price himself out if he performs exceptionally.)
The Steelers will pick up Fields’ fifth-year option for 2025, expensive as it is at $25.6 million. Or negotiate an extension. Fields is 25. He’s got plenty of career in front of him. The Steelers didn’t acquire him to be a backup for one season.
The plan is that Wilson starts and mentors, Fields learns and inherits. (Fields has lots to learn: He’s talented but a turnover machine.)
Things seem clear cut, and so far there isn’t the diva behavior that marked the path to Kenny Pickett’s sudden departure. Wilson is capable of that, but it’s less likely when you’re drinking at the last-chance saloon.
The Fields acquisition is the latest chapter in a perfect offseason by the Steelers that seems to indicate radical changes in philosophy.
It’s one thing to ditch second-string backs, washed-up pass rushers and sketchy receivers when they don’t want to work in Pittsburgh, quite another to trade a third-year quarterback you picked in the first round and a starting wideout.
The Steelers’ locker room had become loud and me-first. But the era of selfish idiocy initiated by Antonio Brown appears to be lifting. Coach Mike Tomlin wants “volunteers, not hostages.” But till recently, that was just babble.
Perhaps GM Omar Khan has grabbed the franchise’s reins from Tomlin, and about time. Maybe assistant GM Andy Weidl has acquired some pull in his two years on the job.
But it’s a new day and hopefully a better one.
The gutting of last year’s quarterback room might not work, but it’s an inexpensive gamble. Wilson and Fields will cost about $4.4 million between them in 2024. Patrick Mahomes’ cap hit is $37 million and rising. (Mahomes is worth every penny, obviously.)
The biggest thing the Steelers have shed might be their stubbornness.
They held onto brainless offensive coordinator Matt Canada too long because Tomlin wanted to be right. They looked set to travel that same road with Pickett.
Now they’re admitting mistakes and correcting them. Progress is emphasized over saving face. That’s how good teams operate.
But let’s see what happens with mercurial wideout George Pickens. He goes against the new grain. He carries the torch for the AB era, that attitude’s last man standing. Pickens will keep things edgy.
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