Steelers Should Consider a “Slash” Role for Justin Fields
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p/c: Joe Sargent
The early portion of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason was quite hectic, to say the least.
It started on March 15th, when GM Omar Khan brought former Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson, for the veteran minimum of $1.2 million.
The idea was for the Steelers to sign a veteran QB, to compete alongside Kenny Pickett.
Reports began to surface that Pickett was unhappy about the Wilson signing. This prompted Pittsburgh to trade their 2022 first round selection to the Philadelphia Eagles, for a 2024 third round pick (Payton Wilson), along with a pair of seventh round picks in 2025.
With the Chicago Bears owning the first overall pick in this year’s draft, Caleb Williams had been considered the consensus selection, and sure enough, it’s who they chose. The pick of Williams would result in the Bears making Justin Fields expendable.
A day after Pickett was moved, the Steelers pulled off another shocking transaction, as they would acquire Fields. In return, Chicago received a conditional 2025 sixth round pick.
In probably the least surprising move of the NFL offseason, Pittsburgh decided to decline Fields’ fifth-year option for 2025 worth $25 million on May 2nd.
Russell Wilson will no doubt open the 2024 season as the Steelers starting signal caller, with Fields looking to take the job away from Wilson. Barring injury, it appears Wilson would play well enough to remain the starter. As for Fields, it might be best to get him involved in the offense somehow. Perhaps Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith can resurrect “The Slash” role for Fields.
There’s plenty of options the Steelers could go with Fields, in terms of offensive playcalling. At 6’3, 227 pounds, the 25-year-old Fields is arguably the fastest QB in the league, as his NFL Combine time coming out of Ohio State was at 4.46, so his speed could be used in a variety of ways, such as the incorporation of a wildcat scheme at QB, catching balls out of the backfield like a tailback, being involved in jet-sweeps, or simply lining up at receiver.
Another thought of utilizing Fields is to have him return kickoffs - something that EA Sports recently teased, as part of their Madden ‘25 video game trailer.
In my opinion, it doesn’t seem necessary to put Fields on kickoff return duties, especially when Calvin Austin III is a more clear cut option.
Rather than have Fields and his young, athletic talents just stand on the sideline, with a clipboard in hand, it would be in the Steelers’ best interest to strongly consider using him in the offense, as a jack-of-all-trades weapon, in order to give them an added dynamic.