Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields sounded like a man that believes he lost his job, even though head coach Mike Tomlin has yet to publicly hand the starter designation to Russell Wilson.
“I don’t think I played good enough, if I’m being real with you,” Fields said Thursday, when asked if it would be frustrating to not start Sunday’s game against the visiting New York Jets. “If I’m being real with myself, I think if I did play well enough, I don’t think there would be any sort of (question of) who should be playing, who should not.
“At the end of the day, (we) got a few wins. Of course, I’m glad about that, but there’s areas that I could be better at and I’m just going to continue to work on those and continue to get better.”
Fields’ comments were noteworthy on the heels of veteran Wilson taking first-team reps this week.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith made it clear the past two weeks that Tomlin is making the final call at quarterback.
Last week, Smith seemed to send the strongest signal yet that his vote would be cast for Fields.
“There’s no drama to him. He doesn’t try to live through his avatar or create a perception. That’s probably why he was so endearing to his teammates in Chicago,” Smith said. “Extremely coachable, extremely bright.”
On Thursday, Smith repeated Tomlin has “a decision to make by the end of the week.”
“Unfortunately Russell missed a lot of time. Haven’t really got to see him,” Smith said Thursday. “I think Justin’s done a good job. By no means is anybody perfect around here but it’s about winning. I wish we were 6-0 — we’re not. I think we’ve made progress in certain areas some weeks.”
Fields and Wilson competed for the starting job in training camp, when the latter was bothered by a calf injury. Tomlin made Wilson the QB1 at the end of the preseason, but Wilson’s leg injury crept up before Week 1 and he was inactive for the first five games. Active as the No. 2 quarterback last week, Wilson was deemed healthy by Tomlin on Tuesday.
Fields, 25, has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 1,106 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. He’s also rushed for 231 yards and five scores. The Steelers (4-2), however, rank 28th in passing and 20th in points.
“I want to be 6-0 right now, but it was a great opportunity for me,” Fields said. “Of course, I’m grateful for the opportunity. I did get those first six weeks, and we’ll just see what happens this week.”
Smith argued that Fields should not lose his confidence if the Steelers go back to Wilson.
“His confidence should be high. He’s 4-2. He’s been pretty productive,” Smith said. “So, whatever Mike tells us to do, we’ll have it ready either way. That’s our job.”
