Former NFL executive says Steelers' Justin Fields: 'Takes more crap' than any other QB in the league

There tend to be two camps when it comes to Pittsburgh Steelers QB Justin Fields.

Those who think he will never be able to process fast enough or take care of the ball long enough , and those who think that at only 25 years old and coming off a horrible situation with the Chicago Bears, some better coaching and he's a proficient starter.

Former front office executive and current ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick is firmly a part of the latter.

Fields Catches Too Much Heat?

"l'm saying in general that this guy [Justin Fields] takes more crap from people, as far as them constantly trying to blow holes in his game to where now they're sitting there going - and I've seen some of the discourse on this — 'this is why he shouldn't start, this is why Russ should start.' I mean it's just, to me, it's annoying that we pinpoint certain people to hang this kind of stuff up on, Riddick said on a recent edition of ESPN's Get Up...

"...To me, this won't cost Justin the job, but this is what we all know. Ball security is very important in the NFL at this position. I think Justin is in, he's in this tsunami of just criticism. Any little thing now we look at him and say, 'ugh, well, makes sense."

I think that Fields certainly is the subject of unjust scrutiny at times. If you watched his reps last Friday , he wasn't a riser or faller , but he had a solid debut and should have been perfect as a passer.

But Mike Tomlin was boisterous after the game when analyzing Fields' start, citing the bobbled center-QB exchanges as inexcusable and "Junior Varsity."

One thing Tomlin won't tolerate is turnovers and Fields has to know that after wrapping up his first camp in Pittsburgh .

"We need to stop doing that kind of crap to these guys and look at it individually. Look, if he didn't get the ball out of his hands because he missed a read, that's one thing," Riddick added when speaking on the criticism of Fields. "And if that's the case and that's still happening, then Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith need to kind of like figure that out and go, 'Hey look, you're gonna have to sit because you're not doing it when you have opportunities. But we can't just automatically look at him and go, 'he took two sacks in the game. See, that's what he did in Chicago.' Did you watch the game? Did you see how they came about? Did you see the pressure he was under? There's always more to the story…but I think some guys get the benefit of the doubt. Justin gets none."

Fields can not only start getting the benefit of the doubt but earn the starting job outright if he builds off his performance last week, come Saturday night .

Related: Steelers to potentially lose starter for the season after leg injury during final practice of training camp