Gotta like this kid

I am starting to really like Justin Fields. His maturity and professionalism are refreshing. More often than not, players tend to complain about not playing or losing his starter job. He more or less agrees with the move and he understands while he was steady there is more for him to learn and areas which need improving.

" I mean I don't think I've played good enough if I'm belng real with you"

There was more from Justin but that is kinda of the summary of how he sees himself.

 

That is why he is really liked by his teammates both in Chicago and here.

 

I agree this kid is handling this like a true pro.

 

Thats a really good sign. Let him learn behind Wilson this year. Off season and Next year he has the opportunity to study film, practice and learn to read defenses and make good decisions. Hopefully Smith can help.

 

I was a major fan of him coming out of Ohio State. My biggest question for him was his lack of polish at the position coming out. Chicago drafting him and expecting him to be Superman every single year was nothing short of morbid comedy.


As he is now?! I do like his chances into developing into something more. How high is his ceiling?! Time will tell.

 

He will get another shot this year. There's a better than 50/50 chance that Wilson is already a downgrade on what Fields has done so far this year anyways. I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if Wilson is still starting football games for the Steelers by the final few weeks of the season.

 

I'd really like to see us improve the team around him. I think he's done a lot of great things so far (obviously has a ways to go), but I am more than encouraged about his position with the team moving forward. We need to heavily invest in offensive weapons in the offseason. Signing a big name WR to pair with Pickens, and probably drafting a RB in the first few rounds would be a great start. Shoring up the OL a bit too wouldn't be a bad idea. I think that will help more than anything else we could do for Justin in the offseason.

 

from different sports shows the insider talk seems to be the team really likes him, coachable and such, I honestly don't know what his market would be in FA, the real test will be what the team feels he is worth and what he and his agent will declare. Can he learn the position to an elite level? Doubtful, but if the price is right and the team surrounds him with good players can that ceiling take us places? Likely the cost will be more than some expect, less than what his agent might ask. As you say time will tell/

 

Thats your opinion. I think there is a better than 50 percent chance Russ plays better and only way Fields sees meaningful playing time again this season is if Russ gets injured.

i’m betting on the multiple time probowler and super bowl champion who scored 26 TD’s last year over the first rounder that the Bears gave up on after 3 seasons (plenty of time). Who still looks to have an anemic passing attack.

 

That's fair if you want to bet on that, and certainly respect/understand that stance. However, with how bad our offense is outside of the QB position, Russ is walking into a super difficult situation... The OL is depleted with injury, the WR corps outside of Pickens is garbage, the team is winning with the other QB, and he's coming off an injury and a reaggravation of that same injury. He's definitely going to have some rust to knock off, but I'm willing to bet that he has a relatively short leash. He will have to perform at a high level, and do it pretty much right away or else he could be out the starting job (and potentially any future opportunity as a starter in this league). Simply losing the next two games might be enough to cut the cord on him. It definitely isn't out of the realm of possibility that Justin gets his job back at some point this season. I hope Russ plays well enough to keep that from happening (because that means we are winning games), but I am not overly optimistic.

Just as Fields was a former first round pick that was dropped, the Broncos were willing to spend nearly 38 million bucks to get rid of Wilson. Both guys have some reason to not have faith in them. I hope Russ can get on that 26 TD pace again, Fields was already on pace for more than 28 TD's this season already... so he is going to have to do at least that well or better to hold him off.

 

Ya think

 

Smith has got to account for Frazier being out, the jets pass rush and Wilson being more of a passer and less of a runner than Fields. Russ and Smith have to do their part or yeah, we could see Fields back sooner than expected, which is not a good sign for our playoff prospects this year.

Btw, like the Bears and Broncos we gave up on our guy too. I think prematurely.

 

I hope at least. If he gets back in as a starter and the team wins games, play offs, then all of a sudden there is a thought that value is greater than production. Buyer beware because there are teams in that over pay and now are stuck. Not saying Fields is there, but you get into a market with few options and owners money opens up.

 

Who? Kenny?

 

Yeah, Kenny.

 

I wanted Kenny to be good...he just wasn't. I'm actually proud of the Steelers to move on as quickly as they did. Dude just wasn't it and was quickly becoming injury prone.

 

Just shows you what a cry baby Pickett was, and how right the team was to kick him to the kerb.

IMO Fields leaves the starting job with a 7/10 grade on the field and an A+ for how he has carried himself on and off the field.

I cannot look past just how bad and how dysfunctional this offesne has been for years, how awful the o-line has been for years, how bad the coaching has been for years, and how thin the WR depth chart is on the his team and think many QB's outside of the the top 10 guys would have done much better than he has.


The idea that JF is the biggest problem and what needs to be adressed first and before anything else on this offense is absolutely wild to me. Not sure what some of you are watching, and not just this season, but for years and years and years leading up to this point.

No-one is saying he's been great, that there's not plenty of room for improvement, but he's been better than the offense as a whole this year, and much better than this stinking debacle of an offense has been collectively for years.

I'd call Justin Fields a fall guy for long standing, systemic failure on offense, the coaching this group has had for years and years and has been deplorable.

He's been harshly treated IMO, especially on an offense that is LIGHT YEARS away from elite.


Now, I like RW I have always loved watching him play, always been a huge fan, I was pleased when he was signed, as I was with JF, I don't know how this is going play out, I suspect we're gonna miss that mobility with a totally broken o-line. I'm not against having a look at RW either, this might be the time, maybe it's going to be a night and day change with Wilson, but I can't help but sympathise with JF, he's when all said and done about 15th in one of the metrics I saw which related to expected play above avg (he was right about where Patrick Mahomes was on that scale IIRC). And I think it's fair to say that half the QB's in the league have been worse than he has.

We'll see what happens but I don't think he's neccesarily deserved to be benched given all the factors going into that decision, and I think that's been borne by the fact that there has not been a widespread groudswell of opinion to bench him.

 

i didnt see enough of his play outside of Canada’s system to say whether he was good or not. I do like Fields attitude more though. But Kenny was put in a difficult position too. Maybe more so.

 

He's saying the right things, but the bottom line is will he make the improvements needed to make his words more than just talk

 

Our guy gave up on us

 

J.F. great attitude ,like him but his lack of vision , lack of making good decisions fast and happy feet negatives. With real good coaching and a better line he has the talent to be good , unfortunately he will not get even average coaching with our current staff . Russel has the mental game but he is on the downward path ,could last 3qts. could last 3or 4yrs. Our situation at qb is not what it should be for the last decade. Ben great talent not really coachable (sandlot football) Rudolf imho not given a fair shot even when he saved tomlin from a losing season ,Kenny should never have bean drafted , especially when he was . hope J.F. matures as a q.b. as he has great character and attitude but will not get the help in the mental side of the game here with our staff . Draft , hire a great q.b. coach maybe but not likely .We ere in a jam but still hopeful it will change , though without major changes in leadership, not likely .

 

I'll give you that Canada was terrible, but a true franchise QB would have had a break out game once or twice at least. He was average every dang game.

 

It was better in some ways and worse in others. Pickett at least had two good receivers when Johnson was healthy, but he also had an incompetent center disrupting plays with poor snaps and getting shoved back into his lap. Fields has a weaker receiver group, but at least he had Frazier in front of him.

Worst of all for Pickett, he was saddled with Canada for almost every one of his starts. That alone makes giving up on him so quickly look a little foolish.

Is Fields easier to like? Yes, he is. He is consistently saying the right things while Pickett allowed his frustration to show.

 

Agreed. I don't think people realize that Wilson hasn't been the same QB for years now. There's a reason two teams wanted him gone. Peyton got the most out of him last year by turning him into a game manager. Wilson wasn't throwing deep much anymore and was making safer, more conservative plays. Peyton is not a conservative coach, which tells me that he had no faith in Wilson's ability to air it out. His yards per attempt were down like 2 full yards from his career average. That's a huge difference in the NFL.

Wilson isn't what he once was, and for some QB's, they adapt and continue to thrive. Most others fade away because they can't do the things that make them successful and they don't know how to be different. I'm not expecting Wilson to be much better than Fields, if at all.

 

Fields has averaged 223 yards (passing and rushing combined) per game, and his TD/Turnover ratio is 5:1. Has he been great? No. Certainly not. But he's performed pretty admirably given the limitations our offense has currently. His running has been one of the few redzone threats we have outside of our TE's (4TD's passing to TE's in the RZ, and 5 RZ rushing TD's. 0 RZ rushing TD's from our RB's). I still think there is a bright future ahead of him as he continues to improve (he very clearly has gotten better in his time as QB this season). Everyone points to Russell and his TD's from last year, but keep in mind, he only averaged 226 ypg (204 passing and 22 rushing) last year. That is only 3 yards a game better than what we've gotten from Fields this season. Russell scored 29 TD's (26 passing, 3 rushing) that season and Fields is on place for 28.3 total TD's this season (10 TD's/6 GP x 17 GP). Russ is going to have to up his game from last year if he wants to out perform what we've gotten from Fields so far in 2024.

It is just a really tough situation Russell is walking into. He's made a ton of money in his career, so nobody feels bad for him... but he better perform and do it quickly. If he falls on his face at all, his time as a starter in Pittsburgh (and the league for that matter) could come to an end quickly. I really hope he plays well and we win games, but I don't see any reason to believe that he is going to outperform what we've had out there the first 6 games. It will be a different way to attain yards, but a lateral move seems to be a good outcome in this scenario. Maybe Russ comes in and lights it up and returns to the glory of years' past, but there just isn't any reasonable reason to believe that will be the case. All conventional wisdom points to this being a lateral move at best.