When the Pittsburgh Steelers revamped their quarterback room this offseason by acquiring Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, the original plan was for Wilson to be the starter while Fields learned by watching. Wilson would be an immediate upgrade over Kenny Pickett, while Fields would have the opportunity to benefit from a much-needed reset after a dysfunctional start to his career in Chicago.
However, those plans were upended after Wilson suffered an injury during training camp that took longer than expected to heal. Fields took the starting job due to Wilson’s injury and hasn’t looked back. After playing arguably the best game of his young career against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3, Mike Tomlin shouldn’t even consider switching back to Wilson. Let’s take a closer look at Fields’ performance in the Black and Gold.
Justin Fields’ decision-making has improved
One of Fields’ biggest problems in Chicago was his poor decision-making ability. There were many times when he would make bad decisions that led to turnovers. He appears to prioritize ball security in Pittsburgh and is doing a much better job of taking what the defense gives him. He still takes some chances, but that’s a prerequisite to being a successful NFL quarterback. The challenge is to understand when to take risks and when to play it safe. Fields has done a much better job of that in the early going of this season.
It’s likely that Mike Tomlin has been making a concerted effort to protect the young quarterback from his own worst instincts, but that’s what should be done with young and developing signal callers. As Fields starts to show that he can be trusted to make the right decision more often than not, Tomlin will be able to open the playbook more and see what he can really do…