The Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-1 through the first four weeks of the 2024 regular season, led by quarterback Justin Fields. Fields, who was supposed to be Pittsburgh's backup to start the season, has been playing the best ball of his young career during his first month with the Steelers. For years now, Pittsburgh's weak offense has forced them to win ugly. Because of these ugly wins under Mike Tomlin, it becomes more difficult for analysts around the league to be sold on Fields so far. One former star running back in particular has been extremely pessimistic about Fields' development, and explained why he thinks he'll never earn the starting job.
Fields and the Steelers have a big challenge against them this week as they defend their home turf in a Sunday night matchup with the Dallas Cowboys. Pittsburgh is coming off of an extremely disappointing, yet winnable loss last week against the Indianapolis Colts. Fields and the offense had a chance to put together a game-winning drive, but failed to do so after a brutal fumbled snap. Another loss against the Cowboys would make things extremely uncomfortable and awkward for Fields and the quarterback situation.
When asked if Fields would lock up the starting role over Russell Wilson with a Sunday night win, LeSean McCoy continued with his negative takes on Fields. McCoy explained that a win over Dallas would still in fact not solidify Fields' position as the starter over Wilson.
McCoy is one of many analysts around the league that aren't buying the Fields hype. Despite the fact that he has a career-best in completion percentage, quarterback rating, and averaging the most yards per attempt, Fields isn't being given credit for the changes he's made. Here's what the former running back had to say when asked if a win against Dallas would solidify his spot as the starting quarterback.
"The way I watch the Steelers play, and the way I know how he plays, I just think that he's never going to do enough to 'wow' us like, 'He deserves to have this spot no matter what,'" McCoy told the crew. "That's not the way he plays. I think the way the Steelers are running their offense with him is just pretty safe. The way he plays is like, he's not taking over the quarterback job. Taking that job is what I've seen when Michael Vick was the starter with the Eagles with me and Nick Foles took over."
While McCoy does have some valid arguments about Fields being a game manager, the stat sheet says otherwise. After comparing some statistics between Fields and Patrick Mahomes, it seems that Fields has arguably had the better season to this point.
Fields has continued to develop nicely and there's no denying that. Another win, which would come on the biggest stage in a home Sunday night match against Dallas, would almost certainly put Fields ahead as the starting quarterback.
If Pittsburgh wins convincingly, like how they performed in the second half of the Colts game, then the quarterback debate should be put to rest. It would bring no benefit to throw in Wilson after starting off 4-1 and leading a tough AFC North division.
Steelers’ Defense Needs To Step Up After A Rough Week 4 Outing
Fields led the offense to a season-high 24 points last week, which typically would be more than enough to get the win. Unfortunately, the defense played their worst game of the season by allowing an early 17-0 deficit. The Cowboys don't have much to work with on the offense aside from wideout CeeDee Lamb, so the defense should go back to dominating.
Both Pittsburgh and Dallas really need a win on Sunday night. A Pittsburgh loss opens up the division, and a Dallas loss puts them at 2-3.
