The NFL is always full of storylines, and people love a good redemption arc. That can be a player returning from injury or illness, or it can simply be a player getting a second chance elsewhere and revitalizing their career. If that player is not playing for a direct rival, we love to cheer for these players. It makes for a great story. Could the Pittsburgh Steelers have one of those stories in QB Justin Fields?
“I almost made it through this entire file without naming a quarterback, but this one’s kind of unavoidable,” NFL.com’s Tom Blair wrote about a player to root for on each AFC team. “Fields is at a career crossroads basically because he is not a clear-cut generational talent… There still appears to be, uh, ‘meat left on that bone’ in terms of what the dynamic Fields can offer, though, and I wouldn’t mind seeing another QB castoff follow the Baker Mayfield trajectory (formerly known as the Ryan Tannehill trajectory?) by re-establishing himself as a viable starter.”
Whatever the reason, whether Fields’ weaknesses or the issues inside the Chicago Bears’ building, Fields did not work out in Chicago. It’s not an uncommon story, a first-round quarterback not working out. Blair cited both Mayfield and Tannehill as examples of that very thing.
Perhaps Fields can follow the path of Tannehill. After all, he’ll be playing under the same offensive coordinator who resurrected Tannehill’s career in Arthur Smith. Lots of running the ball, play-action, and deep shots? Sounds like a system that would get the most out of Fields.
Whether Fields gets a chance to have Blair and Steelers fans everywhere to cheer him while he’s on the field is different. A Chicago-area radio host, David Haugh, thinks that things will have gone wrong for the Steelers if Fields plays in 2024.
Then there are people who think Justin Fields could find a way to be the Week 1 starter in Pittsburgh. Field Yates thinks that the competition will be real in training camp and that Fields can bring something different to the table than Wilson.
So perhaps Steelers fans and Blair will see Justin Fields on the field. Just don’t think that Blair is not a fan of Russell Wilson.
“Don’t take this as anti-Russell Wilson sentiment, though,” Blair wrote. “I root against no one.”