Russell Wilson was limited today in pratice....

I did not watch Fields in Chicago but watched him closely in the preseason

One obvious thing is he does not look down field

 

preseason.....

 

Exactly

If he can’t even do it in preseason with soft defense and scrubs he sure as crap isn’t going to do it regular season

 

Yep that is a problem when you have a QB that can’t see the whole field or go through their progressions. Or we could spread the offense out and have him sit back their confused and turn the ball over and get sacks all day.

 

A plan in the making

 

Oh my have perceptions of good QB play fallen off since Roethlisberger hit his prime.

 

Eh, that isn't necessarily true. Fields has been actually really good on throws down the field for his career. He's been top 10 in accuracy and passer rating on balls more than 20 air yards downfield... It is just that the Bears never gave him much of an opportunity to make those plays (partially due to pass protection not holding up for him to get there, and partially due to scheme and personnel). In 2023 he was 9th among QB's in comp % and 7th in passer rating on 20+ yard throws, so there is reason to think he will do well with those balls if given the opportunity.

I actually thought he did well in preseason game 1. There were some protection issues (and snap issues, not sure if that was on Herbig or Fields there tbh), but he looked more than fine throwing and decision making. He didn't do as well against the Bills, and TBH I didn't pay much attention to preseason game 3 after the first two series, but they both looked strong in that one (Wilson and Fields).

I think we have to stop treating Fields like a normal QB and just understand that he is going to have to play like Jalen Hurts to be effective (and that is OKAY). Lots of designed runs, strong rushing attack with our RB's, and make them pay downfield on play action when the defense overcommits to the run game or the QB run... simple as that. We have to let Fields be Fields and try not to make him be Wilson, or really anyone else. The Arthur Smith offense really plays into what Fields does best and I think he could do a nice job for us. Take his career as a whole and not hyper focus on some generic plays run in a preseason game. The whole threat of someone like Fields is that you have to gameplan differently for him, and we will gameplan differently with him as our starter. Lets see what the kid has when it matters. Atlanta will be a "hometown" crowd for him if he starts (having been born and grown up in Kennesaw, GA). Could be a great place for him to start.

 

Roethlisberger is probably a top 10 QB to ever play the game... Good does exist below his bar of performance. Lets not get ahead of ourselves by saying you have to be as good as Ben to be considered "good".

However, I do think that the Kenny Pickett experiment definitely lowered the bar for what we view as "acceptable". Kenny was the worst QB that we've considered an every day starter since I've been watching football (early 90's), and was worse than a lot of the backups we've had over the years as well.

 

I can't fault you there, the "standard" has been systematically lowered since the prime Ben days. Starting to look like we're back in the 80's again, I certainly hope not though. Unfortunately, HOF QB's like Ben don't grow on trees

 

Thank god were only paying him $1M? Soft as butter. He is going to be such a distraction as long as he is in Pitt. Beginning to think this isn’t ending well nor beginning well. Lol

 

The 80's were better than the 20's so far. Steelers made it to the AFC Championship in 1984, they also beat a good Oilers team in the 1989 playoffs after starting the season 0-2.

 

Good point. I never thought I'd find myself longing for the 80's again, but it seems like it's come to that unfortunately. 7 years is a long time without winning a playoff game, I don't think that's happened since the 60's

 

Bears never gave him much opportunity to throw down field?? So what is Fields looking at for over 3 seconds while standing in the pocket?

 

I am starting to wonder if last year's QB room will actually be better than this year's. It's like Tomlin and Khan made some fantasy football moves.

 

As I stated I did not watch him in Chicago

But I did go to the home preseason games and he did not do well

 

It would be so stupid for the steelers to start Wilson if he is not healthy....No way Wilson who is not healthy gave us the best chance to win vs Falcons

 

Greatest acquisition since Duce Staley.

 

He was in the top 10 in yards in air attempts last season.....It's a much bigger sample size than in the preseason...

 

maybe but I don't think the oilers in 1989 were good....I mean they had lost 61-7 with the division on the line 2 week before

 

Schematically no. I have family in the Chicago area that are big Bears fans and it is pretty well known that the OC struggled getting the ball downfield. All I heard was that he was a bad play caller and a bad scheme fit for what they have. He's an outside zone guy who develops his pass game in the west coast style. Lots of quick and intermediate drops with an emphasis on timing and rhythm... So basically about as far from what you want when developing a dual threat QB.

They fired Bill Lazor after Fields' rookie year and Luke Getsy didn't work out for them... Smith likes to attack downfield off play action and this is something that Fields has excelled at his whole career. I think it has the potential to be a good QB/OC match for his game, and likely the best shot Fields has to prove that he is a good starting QB option in the league.

 

Lets see what he can do as a starter. As a golfer, for me all that mattered was what happened when I teed it up Thursday through Sunday.... I could care less if I shanked one on Tuesday in a practice round. We are game-planning a Fields offense for the first time since he's been here this week (assuming Wilson's calf keeps him out). Maybe we can put the kid in a great position to succeed.

 

A lot of the talking heads are comparing Russ's injury to Joe Burrows.

They are saying it could be a long while before Russ is back to 100%

 

Did you see the first game where Fields should have had a perfect outing if Tomlin had challenged. Fields should have walked away from that game 9 for 9 a TD and a QB rating of 146.

Don't blame Fields because your old man coach doesn't have a clue on challenges.

 

Right, Fields played really well that game, and that was just as a passer. I'm not really sure what some people here were looking at? Once he starts running the ball more, teams will have to respect that, which should open up chances to connect on some deeper passes than he made in pre-season. You're not going to have that kind of dynamic with Wilson

 

Just be ready for the Playoff run.