Signal caller Justin Fields may still sit at No. 2 on the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback depth chart. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t making progress.
In fact, with a fresh emphasis on his footwork, Fields is making tremendous progress according to the Steelers coaching staff.
“He’s really focused so much energy and attention on his footwork in the pocket, playing with a base, working through progressions quickly, being accurate with the ball in the pocket, all of those things you really see,” Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth said, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “You kind of saw him starting to take shape in OTAs and minicamp, but these last couple of weeks have been so impressive to me to really see his growth and development as a quarterback.”
Fields put that progress on display during three drives in Week 1 of the preseason. He completed 5 of 6 passes for 67 yards.
Steelers Changing Footwork for Justin Fields
As Arth detailed, Fields has focused a lot of attention on his footwork. The Steelers are electing to have the 25-year-old change which foot he has in front of his body while lined up in the shotgun formation.
But this isn’t an example of the Steelers forcing Fields to do something the organization wants him to do. Pittsburgh’s coaches are having Fields put his right foot forward in shotgun because that’s what he did in college before the Chicago Bears switched his stance to his left foot forward.
It was also a change that Fields decided himself.
“They didn’t really care too much about footwork or that my left foot was up, right foot was up,” Fields said, via Pryor. “They just said to me, ‘Just close your eyes and whatever’s most comfortable to you, do that.’
“So that’s what I did, and [it was] right foot forward, which makes sense. I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
With his right foot forward, Fields was a Heisman Trophy candidate at Ohio State. He averaged 9.3 yards per pass with 63 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in 22 games with the Buckeyes.
Fields began lining up with his left foot forward in shotgun in 2022. That’s when head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy arrived in Chicago.
“It seems like every time with the left foot forward, it was always a slight hesitation or a thought to what he was doing just because he wasn’t so comfortable with what he was doing because he was so used to having his right foot forward,” Fields’ quarterback trainer Oliver Bozeman told Pryor.
Big Mistakes Plague Fields’ 2024 Preseason Debut
In addition to Arth, Fields has wowed social media users with highlight reel plays from Steelers training camp. His preseason Week 1 passing stat line also could have been a perfect 6-for-6 if Van Jefferson had stayed in bounds on Fields’ lone incompletion.
However, big mistakes from Fields hurt the Steelers offense against the Houston Texans.
He failed to secure the snap from the center twice. Fields also took sacks on two different third-down attempts.
As a result, all three of his drives ended in Steelers punts.
“I thought he — and we — did some good things, but it was just dulled by some of the negativity,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters in his postgame press conference. “But from a rhythm-passing standpoint, distributing the ball to people, I thought he and Kyle [Allen] did a nice job.”
That’s not really much different from his tenure in Chicago. Fields produced plenty of highlight-reel plays with the Bears but then often took a sack or fumbled to negate the positives.
The next step in Fields’ development is minimizing those big mistakes.
