Is Justin Fields close to establishing himself as the Steelers’ starting quarterback ahead of Russell Wilson?

Justin Fields won two straight games in his first two games with the Steelers for only the fourth time in his career while starting for the injured Russell Wilson. But are we getting to the point where we drop the “for the injured Russell Wilson” and stick with “as a starter”?

Yes, the Steelers scored a whopping 31 points and one touchdown in two games. As we all expected in April, a pass from Justin Fields to Darnell Washington was their first of the year. But if you really just watch the video, I think most will be more impressed than the stats suggest.

The fact is that the Steelers have shown that they can win with Justin Fields. Granted, it’s a very small sample size and the quality of the opposition isn’t great. However, both games were away games while a new offense was being broken in.

And let’s face it, the penalties on this offense have been brutal and have already cost Fields a touchdown. We haven’t yet seen what Fields can do in the Steelers offense when it’s actually, well, humming. This is the ugly early stages and he’s really the least of our worries.

At the same time, we haven’t even had the chance to see Russell Wilson dominate the game. For all we know, the Steelers would be a lot better with Wilson than with Fields. First, he would probably be able to distribute the ball better. And Fields didn’t look great in the second half yesterday. He hasn’t lost the ball yet, but he did have one pass that would have been worth losing, and botched turnovers up the middle remain a persistent problem.

Let’s say Russell Wilson misses one more game and Justin Fields leads the Steelers to a convincing win. He throws for 275 yards, has two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown, runs for 60 yards, and protects the ball. No major mistakes. Does Mike Tomlin announce that Fields is the starter on the next lineup?

The Steelers’ 2024 season has begun after another disappointing year that ended with a first-round playoff loss. They’ve had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills put them out of their misery in January. There are positive signs, but things could go awry at any time.

The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Will Russell Wilson get his job back when he is healthy, or will Justin Fields steal it? How will the team continue the depth diagramwhich, surprisingly, is still in flux?

After weeks of training camp and preseason games, the regular season is here. The Steelers have made numerous changes through signings, trades and firings. More than usual, they seemed to help create holes and were confident they could fill them. Some they were able to fill, others less so. But now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, we just have to ask ourselves a new set of questions.