Steelers legend shares wild Justin Fields idea amid team's red-zone woes

NFL reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala of CBS Sports raised some eyebrows when she said on Tuesday that "it's totally within the realm of possibility that Justin Fields" replaces Russell Wilson as the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback at some point this season in part because of the club's red-zone struggles. 

Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger has a different idea regarding how Pittsburgh can use Fields during games. 

"Line him up at receiver a couple times," Roethlisberger said about Fields during the latest edition of the "Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger" podcast, per Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot. "Put him at different spots. Because what that does, even if you don't do anything with it, again, anytime that you can force an opponent to spend five minutes on something that they might never see, it takes them away from preparing for what they will see." 

Brooke Pryor of ESPN mentioned in a piece published on Tuesday how Fields played eight snaps as part of a unique package in Pittsburgh's 24-19 loss at the Cleveland Browns that dropped the Steelers to 8-3 last Thursday night. 

Some may assume Roethlisberger wants Pittsburgh to use Fields similar to how the New Orleans Saints feature Taysom Hill as a Swiss Army knife offensive option, but it sounds like the retired quarterback thinks his former club should simply try to confuse opposing defenses with how it lines Fields up in certain situations. 

"Having him a receiver now makes you think like, 'OK, are they gonna throw it to him? Are they gonna run a reverse pass to him?'" Roethlisberger added about his idea. 

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin may want to give Fields only so many touches as a non-quarterback in a game such as this coming Sunday's matchup at the 4-7 Cincinnati Bengals, as Tomlin may soon feel he needs to go back to the 25-year-old as the team's starting signal-caller to get the most out of the offense amid Pittsburgh's pursuit of a division title. 

For what it's worth, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Steelers as three-point underdogs against the Bengals as of Wednesday morning.

"I like the Fields package," Roethlisberger explained. "It can't be every third-and-short or every fourth-and-short. It has to be used kind of sparingly and at the right time."