Justin Fields has 'real support' in Steelers building

The Steelers are taking more time before announcing their starter, with Mike Tomlin going so far as to say this week of practice will play a potentially deciding role in who lands the job. Wilson’s rocky Broncos tenure made the team’s proclamations about him being the clear front-runner a bit odd, and Fields indeed has closed the gap.

Wilson is still viewed as the more likely Week 1 starter, but Fields lurks — to the point it would be easy to see the younger passer usurping the veteran early in the season. The 2021 first-round pick "has real support in the building," according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. 

The Steelers acquired Fields for just a conditional sixth-round pick — a return much lower than initially expected — and while they are not planning to negotiate with either quarterback until the season’s end, rumors about the team circling back about a post-2024 future with the 25-year-old QB surfaced this offseason.

Of course, immediate reports out of Pittsburgh both said Fields would not seriously challenge Wilson and that the team was interested in a post-2024 partnership with the former Super Bowl winner as well. 

Wilson has since missed time with a calf injury. The 13th-year veteran is full-go now, but he has not created enough distance from Fields to be considered safe just yet. This trajectory would stand to give Wilson a short leash should he end up winning the job.

Viewing Fields as having lost confidence from his inconsistent Bears tenure, the Steelers changed his footwork this offseason. The Arthur Smith-led effort shifted Fields to the dropback mechanics he used at Ohio State, Breer adds. 

In the preseason, Fields went 19-of-27 for 199 yards. Playing in two preseason games, Wilson was 10-of-12 for 73 yards. Both struggled to move the offense in Pittsburgh’s second preseason game, but Wilson led a TD drive in the team’s finale. Fields did not lead any scoring drives against Detroit this past weekend.

If Wilson holds off Fields, this will still be a situation to monitor and represent new territory for the potential Hall of Famer. Despite Wilson’s inconsistency in Denver, he was never in any real danger of being benched for performance reasons. 

He certainly will be this year, and Fields holds a decent chance of winning the job from the start. This would put the former Seahawks star’s career at a crossroads, whereas Fields seems to have upped his stock with the organization in recent weeks.