The Steelers made the bold choice of starting Russell Wilson last week. Many fans, myself included, thought that it was a foolish risk to move on from Justin Fields. He was winning games, and while the offense had its struggles, his ability on the ground kept a lot of drives alive.
Many fans, myself included, came away from the game pleasantly surprised. Wilson looked great in his first action for the team. He was effective in the pocket as a passer and had some pretty deep passes. He also led the team to scoring the most points of the season. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but Wilson should have a firm hold on the position moving forward.
You now have Fields left out to dry though, and there is a potential draft pick increase if he plays in a few more games. There is also a natural quarterback drought in the league, so Fields should have some value. If I had to guess, the Steelers will be receiving calls about their talented quarterback.
Should the Steelers trade Justin Fields?
Deadline trades for quarterbacks are rare. Having to learn a whole new system on the fly is hard, so the odds that a quarterback can switch teams in the middle of the year and successfully transition to a new team seems long. Case in point, there have only been three quarterback trades at the deadline in recent history.
We saw two familiar names get moved for next to nothing. Josh Dobbs was dealt in a late-round pick swap as his serves were desperately needed from a destroyed Vikings quarterback room. Joe Flacco was dealt for a conditional sixth-round pick a few years prior for similar reasons.
The lone name that stands out is Jimmy Garoppolo. In 2017, the 49ers were stuck between Brian Hoyer and C.J. Bethard at quarterback and had yet to win a game before the deadline. San Francisco sent a second-round pick to acquire Garoppolo. It seemed like they always planned on adding him long-term though, as they inked him to a mega-exstension in the offseason.
Based on these deals, it looks like if the Steelers want anything significant back, they will need to find a team that intends on signing Fields in the offseason already. Any team trading for him would also likely not play him until the later portion of the season as was the case with Garappolo. I just don’t see a day-two pick going for Fields, especially when Chicago had such a hard time trading him in the offseason.
Assuming you can get a day-three pick for him, I just don’t see the value. Assuming Fields isn’t the guy anymore, he will enter free agency and sign a respectable deal more than likely next year. That should give him a fair compensatory pick value, likely in the range of a day-three pick.
You also don’t know if Wilson will continue to play well. One game isn’t much of a sample size, and the schedule only gets tougher. If Wilson falters, Fields could come in to start once again. Trading him for a late pick just doesn’t make sense.
Unless a team knocks the Steelers socks off with an overpay of an offer, it doesn’t make sense to trade Fields before the deadline. There is a real chance he starts again this season, and even if he doesn’t, he should have shown enough to warrant a healthy free-agency deal. In short, there is little logic in a deal involving Fields right now.