Steelers president Art Rooney II is on record saying that his preference would be for Pittsburgh to re-sign either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. At this point, the Steelers have not decided which quarterback to bring back for the 2025 season.
It is currently a split decision internally, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Rooney reportedly prefers Wilson, while head coach Mike Tomlin would rather go with Fields.
While the Steelers may be split now, there will likely be a united front by week’s end, as the team’s brass is currently meeting to assess what happened in 2024 in order to start building next year’s team. That includes discussions on which free agents to re-sign and which ones will be given the green light to test the open market. That obviously includes significant conversations regarding the quarterback position and what should happen moving forward.
In theory, the Steelers could re-sign both Fields and Wilson, but Rooney essentially ruled that scenario out when he recently said that both players consider themselves to be starters and would not want to relive last year’s situation. So the Steelers will need to pick one.
You could make a case for both quarterbacks. Wilson won six of his first seven starts last season, including a 414-yard passing performance in Pittsburgh’s Week 13 win over the Bengals. He still throws an accurate “moon” ball, and his intangible strengths were felt during his season in Pittsburgh.
The negatives regarding Wilson is his age (36), the fact the Steelers lost their last five games with him under center and that there was a clear absence of intermediate throws. Wilson also reportedly butted heads with Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who surely would prefer to have Fields back in Pittsburgh.
Fields has far less experience than Wilson and has yet to put together an extremely impressive season (although he had the second-most prolific rushing season by a quarterback in NFL history back in 2022, his second season with the Bears). Yet Fields did go 4-2 as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback last season, scoring 10 total touchdowns and throwing just one interception. Fields is also 10 years younger than Wilson.
While neither one is a sure thing, it appears obvious Fields is the better option and the quarterback the Steelers need to prioritize re-signing before the NFL’s free agency tampering period begins on March 10. Fields will have some options if he elects to test the market, so if the Steelers want to strengthen their odds at keeping him, they’ll need to present him a offer that is generous enough to compel him to re-sign with them instead of exploring free agency for the first time.
Given Wilson’s age, how last season ended and the fact that he probably doesn’t want to move his family to a third city in three years, there’s a good chance the Steelers can re-sign him with little effort, as long as Wilson is agreeable with his contract. If Pittsburgh goes that route, though, that doesn’t solve their quarterback situation for the longterm, which is yet another reason why the Steelers should prioritize re-signing Fields first before possibly circuling back to Wilson.
Regardless of what they do, the fact the Steelers continue to be internally split on their quarterback situation is not a good thing. It’s one of the reasons why Pittsburgh has and continues to be in this position ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season.
The Steelers, reportedly torn on whether or not to bring Roethlisberger back for the 2021 season, did not have a succession plan in place when he did retire. They also had several missteps when it came to their handling of Kenny Pickett, who was traded despite winning 12 of his final 16 starts in Pittsburgh in games that he finished.
If the past several years has taught Pittsburgh anything, it’s that there needs to be a united front behind whoever is the team’s starting quarterback, regardless of which player gets the job.
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Author: Bryan DeArdo
February 19, 2025 | 2:40 pm
