Report: Steelers Could Extend Justin Fields Before 2024 Season
The Pittsburgh Steelers could extend Justin Fields before the 2024 season, especially with the idea they could turn down his fifth-year option.
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded for Justin Fields over the weekend, and after doing so, they are now faced with the decision on whether to pick up his fifth-year option or not. While unlikely, that does not mean that Fields is not in the team’s long-term plans.
According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the team is looking to potentially extend Fields, and that coud happen even before the 2024 season.
“However, that doesn’t preclude the possibility Fields, who just turned 25, could be signed to a new multiyear deal even before the start of the 2024 season. After all, it would make sense. Fields is being viewed as a potential quarterback for the future with the Steelers, even though he was 10-28 as a starter in three seasons with the Bears. It is not their intention to bring him in merely as a backup for one season,” Dulac wrote.
Dulac has stated before that the team hopes to keep Russell Wilson around past this season, too.
Fields took a small step forward in 2023, his third year as Chicago’s starting quarterback. The Ohio State alum threw 370 times, completing 227 for 2,562 yards and 16 touchdowns. He threw nine interceptions and maintained an 86.3 passer rating and a 5.29 adjusted net yards per attempt.
In 2022, he was 192 of 318 for 2,242 yards, 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, an 85.2 quarterback rating and 4.63 adjusted net yards per attempt.
Justin Fields will play under the final season of his rookie contract in Pittsburgh in 2024, and he’s set to earn $3.233 million in the upcoming year. After that, it depends on what the Steelers and Omar Khan decide to do with his option. If the club declines it, Fields can become a free agent. If the Steelers pick it up, they’ll owe him $25.664 million, fully guaranteed in 2025. But if Dulac is correct, there is a middle ground where they decline the option and after that, try to extend Fields long-term.
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