National Football League

Ben Roethlisberger believes Justin Fields has 'earned' right to be Steelers QB1

Updated Sep. 17, 2024 11:52 a.m. ET

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Ben Roethlisberger wants his old team to ride the hot hand at quarterback.

The Pittsburgh Steelers legend believes Justin Fields should take his old job for the foreseeable future after the Steelers' 2-0 start, saying that Fields has "earned" the right to keep the starting quarterback role.

"So far, I like what I've seen," Roethlisberger said of Fields on his podcast, "Footbahlin." "I like that he's getting into it. I like that he's getting the feel of it. If you told me that they're 1-1 or 0-2 and this is going on, I'd say, 'Yeah, we've got to do something.' But he's not turning the ball over. They're 2-0."

Entering the regular season, Russell Wilson was set to be the Steelers' quarterback after the team signed him in March following his release from the Denver Broncos. But a calf injury has sidelined him for the first two games of the season, allowing Fields to get an opportunity to start.

Fields hasn't put up gaudy stats in the two games he's started for Wilson. However, he's done enough to give Pittsburgh's vaunted defense a chance to secure two wins on the road, beating the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 and the Denver Broncos on Sunday. In the win over the Falcons, Fields completed 17 of 23 passes for 156 yards and rushed for 57 more yards. Even though the Steelers didn't score a touchdown in their 18-10 Week 1 win, Fields led them to a scoring drive on six of their 10 possessions.

Fields' stat line actually took a bit of a dip against the Broncos, throwing for just 117 yards and rushing for 27 more. But he threw a touchdown and didn't turn the ball over for a second straight week as Pittsburgh beat Denver, 13-10.

Roethlisberger understood that Fields' numbers might not be the greatest, but he said he would advise Fields not "to worry about what people are saying in terms of yards, in terms of touchdowns, in terms of all that."

"Would you like to see 400 yards, three touchdowns and one rushing touchdown? Of course, you would," Roethlisberger said. "But you know what else you're going to be happy with? You'll be happy with a guy right now that wasn't even really supposed to probably start this year, going 2-0, taking care of the football, making plays, sometimes out of nothing when guys are getting in."

Even though the Steelers made the postseason in 2023, their quarterback play often harmed them more than it helped. In the first 14 weeks of the season, Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky threw a combined 10 touchdowns to nine interceptions, going 7-7 in those games. Mason Rudolph took over in Week 15, helping the Steelers win three straight games in order to make the playoffs before a wild-card round loss to the Buffalo Bills.

As a result of the lackluster quarterback play, the Steelers opted to revamp their quarterback room by signing Wilson to a minimum deal and acquiring Fields in a trade from the Chicago Bears. There was an expectation through much of the offseason that Wilson would open the year as the starter even though the Steelers had an open quarterback competition. Additionally, the conditional 2025 sixth-round pick that Pittsburgh gave the Bears for Fields will turn into a fourth-round pick if he plays at least 51% of the snaps this season. 

Steelers' Justin Fields speaks on starting over Russell Wilson and beating Falcons

Even though the Steelers might be incentivized to start Wilson and Fields hasn't been lighting it up, Roethlisberger doesn't want to see Pittsburgh tinker with what's been a winning formula through the first two weeks of the season. 

"Once you get into a rhythm and you get good things going, you don't want to mess that up," Roethlisberger said. "Let's not mess up the rhythm of the team and what's going on, and I think they're building. They looked better this week than last week. If they continue to build, I think that that's the move. You stay with it." 

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