NFL fans joked that Russell Wilson’s and Justin Fields’ latest physique updates likely won’t translate to the field

If you’ve followed the NFL long enough, you should be intimately familiar with the “best shape of their life” trope.

This idea applies to underperforming veterans who have apparently reinvented themselves purely because they spent some extra time in the gym and the kitchen during their downtime. It seldom translates to the field, making vets who feed into this idea ripe pickings for NFL fans ready to roast big names.

Enter veteran scapegoat Russell Wilson and the electric, if maddening, Justin Fields .

The two Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks are currently in the process of trying to breathe new life into their respective careers. Wilson is coming off an extremely disappointing stint with the Denver Broncos after they thought they were trading for a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback. Fields is coming off a tenure with the Chicago Bears, where it would probably have been charitable to label him anything but a “bust.”

And so, both gentlemen have clearly been spending more time in the gym lately, trying to make up for their recent pitfalls, as can be seen in this new side-by-side of a ripped Wilson and a shredded Fields. Oh yeah, you guessed it.

They’re in the best shape of their lives!

A masterful gambit, guys. This usually doesn’t work for most players, but Wilson and Fields will be different! (Maybe.)

This isn’t to say that taking care of yourself at an elite level doesn’t matter in the NFL. It does, just like it does in every major professional sports league. However, the reason that simply training harder doesn’t shift pro football careers around on a dime is that every person playing in the NFL is an elite athlete. Everyone is largely doing the same thing by pushing themselves in the gym and meticulously following a strict diet. It’s a prerequisite to success, not an extra untouched ingredient no one has thought about before.

It’s great that Wilson and Fields are doing all the right things before the Steelers training camp opens up later this month. This is how professional athletes should conduct themselves.

Still, likely nothing they do will matter nearly as much as their play on the field. Can either of them make consistent reads over the middle of the field? We’ll talk then and only then.

NFL fans had jokes about Wilson and Fields being in the “best shape of their lives.”