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Chris Meaney
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A day after trading away their 2023 starter, the Pittsburgh Steelers have added a different former first-round quarterback to serve as backup in 2024, acquiring Justin Fields from the Bears. The Steelers are reportedly giving the Bears a sixth-round pick in 2025 that could become a fourth-rounder based on playing time, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Fields is the second high-profile quarterback the Steelers have added this offseason, after signing Russell Wilson earlier in the week following his release from the Broncos. Wilson will certainly be the starter in Pittsburgh to open the season, though in Fields the Steelers have a quarterback with plenty of starting experience (38 starts in three seasons) if Wilson struggles or gets hurt.
In three years in Chicago, Fields managed only an 82.3 passer rating. That’s 31st among 33 quarterbacks in that time who have started at least 20 games, though one of the two below him, Kenny Pickett, is the man he’s replacing in Pittsburgh. (The Jets’ Zach Wilson is 33rd, at 73.2.) Fields has 40 touchdowns against 30 interceptions as a passer in his career, including a 16:9 ratio in 2023.
Of course, while Fields may leave some wanting as a passer, he’s electric as a runner, with 2,220 rushing yards in his three seasons, including 1,143 in 2022, when he finished as the QB6 in fantasy. He slipped to QB18 in 2023, missing four games in the process.
The Steelers have very little committed to Wilson long term, so if he doesn’t work out, the team could give Fields an audition to be the starter in 2025 and beyond. Of course, Fields is entering the last year of his rookie deal, and the team will have to make a decision on his fifth-year option by early May. So Fields and Wilson could both theoretically be one-and-dones in Pittsburgh.
Fields has no fantasy value as a Steeler absent a Wilson injury, but if anything does happen to the starter, he would immediately become a top-10 fantasy quarterback with upside for more because of his elite rushing ability.
The trade also closes the door on the already-remote idea that the Bears could pass on taking a quarterback with the first overall pick in April, either by taking Marvin Harrison Jr. or trading down. Chicago will take a quarterback, either there or – on the off chance they trade down to 2 or 3 – soon thereafter. The team has added Keenan Allen, D’Andre Swift and Gerald Everett to the offense this offseason and still have DJ Moore, Cole Kmet, Roschon Johnson and Khalil Herbert, so whoever the starting quarterback is – likely Caleb Williams – will have an impressvei array of weapons to work with.
