Following a season where Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph all started for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team brought in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to supplant them.
Both Wilson and Fields have extensive starting experience, but only one of them will land the job for the 2024 season, and one NFL analyst expressed a ton of confidence in his prediction on the Steelers’ Week 1 starter.
ESPN’s Marcus Spears Believes That Justin Fields Will Start in Week 1
On ESPN’s “Get Up,” Mike Greenberg asked former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Marcus Spears if Fields would be the starting quarterback in Week 1 of the season for Pittsburgh.
“Absolutely, G,” Spears responded. “Listen, I think you bring Justin Fields if you’re Pittsburgh — I love the situation he’s in with Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith. They’ve got to give him a shot because (we) could be potentially talking about your franchise quarterback as opposed to this revolving door that they’ve had at quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired.”
Fields was acquired by the Steelers for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The 25-year-old quarterback has seen ups and downs throughout his three-year career, completing 60.3% of his passes for 6,674 yards, 40 touchdowns and 30 interceptions.
Fields has also been a dynamic rusher, gaining 2,220 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns on the ground.
Wilson, meanwhile, signed a one-year contract with Pittsburgh on March 15, shortly after his release from the Denver Broncos.
Why Russell Wilson Could Have the Edge Over Fields
While Fields has the youth, Wilson has the experience.
Wilson has made 188 career starts as an NFL quarterback in 12 years. He has a Super Bowl win to his name and is coming off of a season with Denver that showed improvement compared to his first season with the team.
In 2023, Wilson had the second-highest completion percentage of his career (66.4%), passing for 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
He’s a nine-time Pro Bowl selection, a second-team All-Pro pick (2018), and led the NFL in passer rating in 2015 and touchdown passes in 2017. Wilson has compiled a 64.7% completion percentage, 43,653 yards, 334 touchdown passes, 106 interceptions, and a 100.0 passer rating in his career while adding 5,307 rushing yards and 29 rushing touchdowns.
He also had his highest passer rating in 2023 (98.0) since his final season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2021 (103.1). Wilson’s advanced metrics were intriguing enough to put stock into as a buy-low candidate.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton offered up a critique of Wilson, who was sacked the most of any quarterback in 2023 (45 times). The next highest quarterback was Ryan Tannehill, who was sacked 32 times.
“Well, I think this, No. 1, we can’t take as many sacks,” Payton said at the NFL Owners Meetings. “If you looked at any of the data relative to what it does for your drives — I think that was a big thing that hurt us a year ago. But obviously, you have to be efficient running the ball.”
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