Justin Fields news

well it’s the first time for everything a special edition of PFT pm on a Saturday night from The Barn took a break from playing a little Shuffle bowling to react to the shuffling if you will of Justin fields from the Chicago Bears to the Pittsburgh Steelers what a stunner now the Steelers needed another quarterback after jettisoning canning picket to the Philadelphia Eagles letting Mason Rudolph sign elsewhere cutting Mitch trubisky right after to the Super Bowl all they have was Russell Wilson now they got Justin fields for a conditional 2025 sixth round pick that is nothing that’s the kind of thing that pretty much any other team in the league should have wanted to match or beat where are the Broncos where are the Raiders where are the Vikings not that the Bears would have wanted to trade him within the division but in the same week the Steelers got Russell Wilson for $1. 21 million a guy who has won a Super Bowl when back to another and could have won another if they would have called a run instead of a pass in a key moment was a consensus choice to head to the Hall of Fame before his last two years in Denver they get him for 1.21 million and they get Justin fields for a 2025 sixth round pick he’s got a base salary plus bonuses in the range of I think five million or so this year as a first- round pick in 2021 it’s nothing it’s peanuts they get a guy who many thought last year was on the verge of breaking out to be the backup apparently to the guy who was on track to have a bronze bust in Canton now how much will Russell Wilson and Justin Fields compete who knows I got a thought though and this is influenced by 50 years of being in and around Pittsburgh I think back 20 years 30 years good Lord time has flown 30 years to 1995 Cordell Stewart a rookie slash Neil o Donald the starter Cordell Stewart comes in from time to time plays a little receiver plays a little quarterback pardon the shuffle alley it’s beckoning that I return what about Justin fields in specialty packages just like they used Cordell Stewart back in 1995 talk about something that’ll put stress on a defense we know what Justin Fields can do with the ball in his hands we know that he’s one of the most dangerous running quarterbacks in the NFL will they start using him in different ways they’ve made this investment although the draft pick investment isn’t significant there’s a financial investment greater than Russell Wilson now Russell Wilson’s making 39 million but he’s getting 1.21 from the Steelers Fields is going to get a lot more than that I think they’ll find a way to use him I think that we’ll see maybe both guys on the field at the same time either way it gives new offensive coord Arthur Smith a lot of things he can do a lot of ways he can go this is fascinating for this Steelers and this is so out of character to give up on Kenny picket after two years to cut Mitch trubisky who they liked enough to give an extension to last year to move on from Mason Rudolph who started the last three games of the regular season and was pretty damn good and gave the bills more of a fight than we thought they were going to get from the Steelers in the Wild Card round all three are gone Russell Wilson Justin Fields now as to the Bears I was starting to think and we may have mentioned this on PFT live that they should have just held Fields through the draft through round one if a team that’s looking for a quarterback in round one doesn’t get the quarterback they want that’s when you can maybe get something more than a 2025 six round pick for fields and if that doesn’t work out I mean surely they could have moved him on draft weekend from more than a 2025 six round pick to somebody that didn’t get a quarterback whether it’s in round one round two round wherever at some point yeah we’ll give you a sixth round pick next year for Justin fields we give you a fifth round pick you’ll do even better I know they wanted to do right by Justin Fields but you can do wrong by yourself and I thought maybe the best case scenario would say to Justin Fields here’s what we’ll do there’s no starting opportunity out there for you if you go to be a number two somewhere else you’re counting on one guy getting injured if you stay here any guy gets injured and maybe the the phone rings and we place you in a spot where you can walk right in as the starter potentially and we get more then a six round pick in 2025 I’m stunned at how the Bears handled this I’m amazed at the Steelers have taken a step away from the way they usually do things and gotten so much this week this has been a major coup for the Steelers Russell Wilson and Justin fields in one week it’s unbelievable and the Steelers are the last team that you would expect to make a kind of move like this hey Jerry Jones you want to know what Allin looks like Allin looks like what the Steelers are doing at the quarterback position they’re Allin they’re trying to address one of the weaknesses on the team they’re trying to get an offense to go along with that defense that’s already Championship caliber the offense has been dragging the team down so here we go indeed oh mama I’m in fear for my life defens is in the AFC North should be anybody that plays the Steelers in 2025 or four getting my year mixed up I haven’t had that much to drink yet anybody that plays the Steelers in 2024 should be they got Russell Wilson they got Justin Fields they’re gonna find a way I believe to use them both and also May bury the headline here it’s not pretty damn clear Caleb Williams is going to be a Chicago Bear isn’t it unless they find something when he visits the team and he submits to a physical the one that he didn’t submit to in Indianapolis they’re going to take him and they got Keenan Allen and they got DJ Moore and they got DeAndre Swift the Bears may be a force to be reckoned with as well maybe one of these years before too long the Steelers and the Bears get together in the Super Bowl who knows crazier things have happened crazier things have happened this week and I haven’t even gotten into the whole Aaron Rogers thing and I won’t so I’m gonna sign off for now by the way thanks to the Bucks they were very happy with all the nice things we were saying about how Jason light the GM of the team regards Baker Mayfield as a on the prick scale they actually like that so uh hey you know and I wasn’t trying to get I I can be bought as I’ve said time and again I’m not the guy you kill I’m the guy you buy so I got this great new cream sickle hoodie I hooked Sims up as well sim said I played for them I should get one too so he got one I got one life is good life’s going to be better once I hit the bar on the other side of the screen have a little drink have a little smoke get back to work signing off on a rare Saturday night PFT PM see you Monday morning for PFT live hi it’s Mike Florio thanks

Justin Fields detail report

 

we got some breaking news out of the NFL the Chicago Bears are trading quarterback Justin fields to the Steelers this according to senior NFL Insider Jonathan Jones in return the Bears reportedly getting a sixth round pick that becomes a fourth rounder based on playing time that is per ESPN the move comes with the Bears holding the number one overall pick and quarterback Caleb Williams considered the favorite candidate to go to Chicago Fields joins uh Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh Wilson signed with the Steelers earlier this week Pittsburgh also traded last year’s starter Kenny picket to the Eagles so we got a new quarterback room in Steel City and let’s welcome in CBS Sports NFL Rider Ryan Wilson fields to the Steelers after Russell Wilson is going to Pittsburgh what do you make of this move for the Bears point of view and from the Steelers point of view well in terms of the Bears Russ what they’re going to do it’s it’s quite clear you touched on a kaya Williams going to be the guy number one they pick again at number nine and we’ll see what happens there whether it’s offensive lineman defensive Edge rusher or wide receiver but for the Steelers uh it’s been a lot of moving and shaking over the last 48 hours or so you mentioned Kenny picket was traded uh the reports coming out of Pittsburgh is that he he wasn’t excited about the idea of sharing reps with Russell Wilson it goes back to week 17 of the regular season where he opted not to dress uh after Mason Rudolph was named the starter and Kenny picket was returning from injury and it sounds like it’s snowball from there the the quarterback they drafted two years ago to be the franchise at number 20 overall is now in Philadelphia as a backup there and the Steelers aren’t messing around they moved on from Deontay Johnson the wide receiver as well they traded him to Carolina which needed some wide receiver help in return they got Dante Jackson the cornerback which feels a need on the roster in Pittsburgh after moving on from Patrick Peterson and now you have Russell Wilson who according to reports appears to be the starter we’ll see uh we have yet to have the draft and then just Fields who has one year left on his rookie deal they’re going to be paying peanuts a combined 4 million in change it sounds like for both quarterbacks uh who here’s the crazy thing about the NFL Russ if you go back to when Justin Fields was drafted in the top 15 and when Russ Wilson signed that huge deal with Denver a few years ago and if I came to you from the future and said hey man in two years the Russell Wilson’s and the Justin fields are going to be in the Steelers you would ask me what could have possibly happen to get us to this point uh it turns out things didn’t go well for us and things didn’t go great for Justin either but they get fresh starts in Pittsburgh uh a team that now has two exciting quarterbacks potentially going in different directions in terms of their age uh but it’s certainly different than what was to start the season a year ago with let’s see here kitty picket Mitchell trais and of course Mason Rudolph all now on different teams than Pittsburgh you know you mentioned how relatively little the Steelers are going to pay for two starting quarterbacks they’re only responsible for the league minimum portion of Russell Wilson’s deal the rest of which is going to be picked up by his old team the Denver Broncos I can almost guarantee you that they’re going to say it’s a quarterback competition going into this I would think that’s what’s going to come out of of Pittsburgh how realistic of a chance though do you think Justin Fields has to overtake Russell Wilson considering that it’s not like they’re dumping money if if Russ can’t go number one yeah it feels like it should be a wide open competition I only hesitate because Jerry duck the longtime beat reporter out of Pittsburgh uh sent out tweet not too long ago saying that Russ is going to be the number one as we sit here but again it’s the middle of March a lock and Chains No One thought that Mason Rudolph would finish the season last year for the Pittsburgh Steelers and not only finish the season but be the best quarterback on that roster so given the way Russell played the last two years in Denver and last year was a little better than the year before granted and given the upside that we’ve been talking about Justin fields for years now it feels like it should be a wideopen competition there are things that those quarterbacks do well and there are things that those quarterbacks struggle with so we’ll have to see how this plays out in Arthur Smith offense the new offensive coordinator taking up from Matt Canada Smith of course was a longtime head coach in Atlanta prior to that being the Titans offensive coordinator he feels like a better OC right now in his NFL Journey than head coach and I think he has an opportunity uh to get this offense back to where it was before Matt Canada was in the mixed colum plays now they don’t have Deontay Johnson so there’s a very good chance to pick 20 they can look at wide receiver there’s also a better chance they look at offensive line so now you have last year’s first round pick and brri Jones playing left tackle you could draft his teammate of Marius Mims uh if he’s available the guard The Tackle out of Georgia to play on the right side and now you’re protecting Russ Andor Justin Fields you’re going to have a run game that Arthur Smith’s can to be very interested in using that stars na Harris and Jaylen Warren and suddenly this offense looks a lot different than it did a year ago the defense should be fine it all starts for TJ wide but maybe this team is going to be more competitive than it was last year when it surprised a lot of people won 10 games and made its way into the playoffs tough division too when you consider the other quarterbacks around the division as well what do you make of the return here we’re talking about a sixth round pick that could go as high as a fourth round pick based on playing time are you surprised at all by by how little or or does just seem about right Russ I’m not surprised now if you’d asked this a week ago I would have been shocked because I I spoke to to Brian mcfaden our guy CB Sports HQ who also played for the Steelers won two Super Bowls and I said what how does it sound for a second round pick and maybe some change for Justin fields and I had this conversation with him a week ago on air and he said yeah that sounds about right and here we are fast forward 7 to 10 days and the price of Poker has gone all the way down to a sixth round pick that maybe becomes a fourth round pick in 2025 based on playing time and I think that tells you how the league felt about Justin fields and Justin Fields came out he was the fourth quarterback taken in that draft class of five that went in the first round starting with Trevor Lawrence and ending with M Jones uh all of those quarterbacks not named Trevor Lawrence are now on different teams which tells you how uh volatile the quarterback marking can be but I think the NFL made it clear that Justin Fields was not worth a second round pick or a third or a fourth or a fifth and it took a six round pick and clear that’s a roster in the quarterback room for Pittsburgh uh for an opportunity for Justin fields to move on from Chicago but this is good news for the Bears and that they don’t have to worry about having Justin fields and Caleb Williams in the building together uh as they move forward with their franchise quarterback it’s good news for Justin Fields getting a fresh start and maybe the Steelers can get the most out of his abilities and as you point out just a moment ago Russ it now comes down to who wins this quarterback battle uh in Pittsburgh where the it’s crazy because Big Ben was there from 2004 to just a few years ago Kenny picket didn’t work out and now the Steelers are looking for uh their next starting quarterback in that post big bin world and it could be Russ it could be Justin or who knows maybe they draft the quarterback at 20 and there’s a third third name in the mix as well well only time will’ll tell what comes of this trade but for the time being Ryan going to ask you to grade this trade oh this is an A+ so you get Russ Wilson and Steelers fans are coming around to talking themselves into into Russell being the guy he is an upgrade Over Kenny picket even if it’s a marginal upgrade and look they’re holing in this game no doubt about it but now you bring in Justin Fields who does all the things you want a Young quarterback in the NFL to do he’s incredibly athletic he has a big arm he can do a lot of things in space he has to get better inside the pocket and maybe that’s something Arthur Smith can help him with but the price the 1. 2 million for one year for Russell the six round pick that maybe becomes a fourth based on playing time for Justin those feel like layup UPS uh very rarely you can get two starting caliber quarterbacks on your on your roster for less than $5 million combined and the Steelers have done that in 2024 so I think you have to feel good about it and you could argue that both these quarterbacks are an upgrade Over Kenny picket even if it’s at the margins but that’s that’s a step in the right directions for Steelers fans many of whom have become frustrated with the lack of quarterback play and and how the offense was called with the previous offensive coordinator so give Omar Khan that the general manager credit give Mike tman the head coach credit for realizing the mistakes have been made and moving on from those mistakes instead of Leaning into them which it felt like in years past R said the team was sometimes stubborn to to to go forward in the face of mistakes this year feels completely different and I think this team is going to look completely different on the opposite side of the ball for sure and as these uh these stories continue to evolve as breaking news happens we’re now learning that the Steelers are coming out and it looks like Russell Wilson will be the number one quarterback in that QB room going in but of course all of these things are evolving as we go it’s a fluid situation that’s why we thank Ryan Wilson our CBS Sports NFL Ridder for joining us is Justin Fields is going to be traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers according to our Jonathan Jones and you can hear more from Ryan along with Rick Spielman they’ve got the with the first pick podcast which makes total sense to be listening to all the time right now as we get ready for the NFL draft of course this move will portend to a lot what happens at the top of the NFL draft with the Chicago Bears who are on the clock with the number one overall pickets with the first pick podcast Brian Wilson and Rick Spielman