The Pittsburgh Steelers have looked quite impressive to start the 2024-25 NFL season, continuing their undefeated season with a 20-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. On Monday, former NFL coach turned media personality Bill Belichick made it a point to offer some rather boldly confident comments about the Steelers’ quarterback situation.
Coming into the season, the Steelers had perhaps the most questionable quarterback situation in all football.
On the one hand, you have veteran quarterback Russell Wilson, who has experienced a ton of success throughout his career but hasn’t exactly looked like himself in recent years. On the other, you have Justin Fields, who has sometimes flashed significant upside during his time with the Chicago Bears but didn’t have the team success or consistency to stick around.
Ultimately, Wilson’s injury-riddled training camp led to Fields’s starting the team’s season opener. And Fields hasn’t given the Steelers any reasons to move to Wilson, playing steady, mistake-free football over the team’s first three games and contributing to their 3-0 start.
On Monday’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show, Belichick expressed his admiration for Fields’s performance thus far, even suggesting that the Steelers “might have the best quarterback situation in the NFL” with Fields starting and Wilson as the backup.
“Well, everybody’s worried about Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation,” said Belichick, “they might have the best one in the league. You have an experienced guy to come in behind Fields if you need him. They are playing well as a team. But again, long way to go.”
“Pittsburgh might have the best Quarterback situation in the league..
You have an experienced guy behind Justin Fields if you need him” ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive https://t.co/qqCVpvcnph pic.twitter.com/aEEZu3FTvm
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 23, 2024
McAfee was immediately quite shocked to hear Belichick say that.
On paper, it does seem like an overreaction to the Steelers’ success.
The Steelers have only scored three offensive touchdowns in three games. On the other hand, Pittsburgh’s defense has been outstanding, allowing no more than 10 points in any game, and is arguably the best unit in football on either side of the ball.
Fields hasn’t needed to do much more than take care of the football for the Steelers to have success,
Having someone like Wilson waiting in the wings as your backup is undoubtedly a plus, as Belichick referenced. But Belichick knows better than anyone that it generally takes elite quarterback play to make any kind of significant run in the NFL in this day and age.
And it sure seems like the jury is still out on whether either Wilson or Fields can provide that.
