When the Steelers acquired Justin Fields this offseason, it wasn’t clear what his role would be in Pittsburgh with Russell Wilson in town. Fast forward to week one of the NFL season and Fields gets the start in Atlanta due to a calf injury to Wilson. He led the Steelers to victory and looked better than his replacement in Chicago .
Fields Felt At Home
Although he was with a new team, one thing felt familiar for Fields in week one. He was back in his hometown of Atlanta. After a long camp of taking reps with the first team due to Wilson’s injury, he was set to play with them in week one, something Steelers fans didn’t expect. According to Mike Tomlin, Wilson has been in pole position since he got here, but a couple of good starts could land Fields the job permanently.
Fields gave the Steelers a quality start. He finished the game with 156 passing yards while completing 17 of his 23 passes. He wasn’t able to lead the Steelers into the endzone, but he still did enough to win. He finished his Steelers debut with PFF’s highest passing grade on deep passes among all quarterbacks in week one with a 99.4 grade.
He also boasted the highest passer rating of any AFC North quarterback at 91.9. That daunting group of Lamar Jackson , Joe Burrow , and Deshaun Watson couldn’t even keep up with little old Justin Fields in week one. Nobody had that on their season opener bingo card. Fields even finished the week seventh among NFL quarterbacks with a 77.4 passing grade. The dual-threat also rushed for 57 yards and averaged 4.7 yards per attempt.
The fresh face in Pittsburgh became one of three quarterbacks in NFL history to achieve above a 70% completion rate and rush for 50+ yards in his team debut. The other two quarterbacks are Cam Newton in 2020 and Roger Staubach in 1970. An elite company for Fields, even if it is an extremely obscure statistic.
Steelers Riding With Fields For Week 2?
Early in the week, Mike Tomlin announced that the Steelers would be preparing for the Broncos with Fields as the starter while they monitored Wilson. Through an odd game of telephone, NFL sources turned that into Tomlin naming Fields the definite starter in week two in Denver. Pittsburgh could be smart to learn that way, as history tells us.
Last season, Fields played his best game as a pro against the Broncos. He passed for 335 yards and four touchdowns with an 80% completion rate. If he can even come close to replicating that on Sunday, the Steelers will cruise to 2-0 easily. Steelers fans would love to see him use the middle of the field more as it was completely neglected in week one. Fields also registered zero turnover-worthy plays with that being a large factor.
In week one, the Broncos had the highest blitz percentage of any defense in the NFL. They blitz 50% of the time and got one sack and one interception. If that’s the way they’re going to play, Fields’ escapability could come up huge for Pittsburgh. Still nursing the calf injury, getting blitzed that often could be a huge problem for Wilson. Steelers fans all wanted to see Wilson get his revenge game against the Broncos, but if you can’t go, you can’t go.
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