Former NFL QB: Steelers Would Upgrade at QB with Justin Fields

The Steelers’ quarterback situation has become a hotly debated topic locally and nationally as Kenny Pickett enters the post-Matt Canada era of his career. All to his credit, Pickett reeled in the best performance of the year against the Bengals, hitting impressive deep balls. While there were some misses, it was an undeniable step forward for Pickett, and he will look to stack weeks.

However, Dan Orlovsky is not too convinced with what Pickett has shown. While commenting on the Bears quarterback situation and defending Justin Fields, Orlovksy said that the Steelers would be better off with Fields as their quarterback with his playmaking than with Pickett under center. That seems like a leap, and I like Fields and his potential, but he has shown very little to fully buy into what the potential of his game was coming out of Ohio State.

I still watch Fields and think “play maker”

Yes I want him to play more settled and in structure and do the little QB things more and better, but, just today alone he makes the

Jets
Pats
Steelers
Raiders
Giants
Vikings
Falcons
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Bucs

Better at QB position. I wouldn’t give…

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) November 29, 2023

There should be a team that leaps Fields. I doubt that team will be Pittsburgh, and if they decide he is worth a risk to leap on, it certainly is not as a unanimous, outright starter. Pickett has to show more, too. Pittsburgh is at an odd spot with their quarterback situation and needs to see more out of Pickett, but the first step was getting rid of Matt Canada to see what they had in him.

Now that it is done, the Steelers can move forward with the evaluation process. He still has six more games and potentially the playoffs to show off what he can do and put together those flashes. Since he is coming off the most complete of his entire NFL career, that is a good foot to get off on, but he does need to stack those games on top of one another.

Pickett’s mobility is one of the traits that attracted the Steelers to him in the first place. He can scramble when asked and creates plays out of structure. We have not seen the out of structure stuff as much this year, but it is part of his game that intrigues him. Regardless, I’m not sure Fields is so much better than Pickett that it is apparent that what Orlovsky says is true, at least in my opinion.