Mar 22, 2024 5 min read

By Dale Lolley

For the Observer-Reporter

The Steelers completely revamped their quarterback room in the span of a few days last week.

It was a low-risk, high-reward move.

Out are Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph. In are Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.

Wilson was signed last week to a veteran minimum deal, thanks to Denver picking up the remainder of his $39 million salary in 2024. Fields, meanwhile, was acquired from the Bears for a conditional sixth-round draft pick hours after Pickett was shipped to Philadelphia along with a 2024 fourth-round pick in exchange for a 2024 third-round pick and two 2025 seventh-round draft picks.

So, Steelers GM Omar Khan acquired a pair of quarterbacks with starting experience, a third-round draft pick this year and two seventh-round picks in 2025 in exchange for Pickett and a fourth-round pick.

It’s probably not a good idea to challenge Khan to a game of poker.

Many fans had been clamoring for the Steelers to acquire Fields. Had the Steelers done that earlier in this process, the cost would have been a first- or even second-round pick. And, as the league just told us, that cost was too high for Fields. Nobody was biting at that price.

Fields is talented. He’s had a 1,000-yard rushing season and has 40 touchdown passes in 38 career starts. He might be the best running quarterback in the NFL.

But he also has been prone to turnovers in his three seasons, throwing 30 interceptions and fumbling 38 times.

One thing Steelers quarterbacks have not done much of in the past two seasons is turn the ball over. As a group, they threw just nine interceptions last year and fumbled six times.

They were careful with the football – something that led to winning a lot of close games.

The move to Wilson and Fields shows the Steelers are going to try to play differently in 2024.

Wilson has a career interception ratio of just 1.8 in his career, which matches Pickett’s 1.8 ratio. That means for every 100 passes they attempt, only 1.8 are intercepted, on average.

But Wilson also has been prone to fumbles. He has 103 in 188 career games. He fumbled 10 times last season.

The hope the Steelers have is that running the ball effectively and allowing their quarterbacks to use more play-action in coordinator Arthur Smith’s system will lead to more scoring and fewer turnovers.

And if it doesn’t work that way, the Steelers can easily move on from Wilson, Fields or both, at little cost, after the 2024 season.

• There’s a lot of speculation out there regarding Pickett wanting out of Pittsburgh and why.

But the bottom line is that once he found out Wilson was being courted, not just by the Steelers but by veterans Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick, his time had come to an end.

Quarterback isn’t like other positions in any other sport. It’s difficult for a quarterback who has been an unquestioned starter to hang around as a backup, especially as a former first-round draft pick.

• We’ll hear from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin this week about how he feels his team will come together in 2024.

Tomlin will meet with local media today and then speak at the coaches breakfast Monday at the NFL’s spring meeting in Orlando, Fla.

• Congratulations to Duquesne’s men’s basketball team and head coach Keith Dambrot for not only making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the late 1970s, but getting the first tournament win in 55 years by beating BYU in Thursday’s opening round.

Dambrot, who has been at Duquesne since 2017, announced his retirement earlier in the week. That’s a heck of a way to go out.

• The Founders League, from which the Washington County team that competes in the Pony World Series each year is selected, continues to grow.

The league had included 13- and 14-year-old players from the Trinity, Washington, McGuffey, Canon-McMillan, Avella, Burgettstown, Chartiers-Houston and Fort Cherry school districts.

This year, the league will be joined by teams from the Bentworth, Charleroi, California, Beth-Center and Ringgold school districts, meaning all areas of Washington County will be represented with the lone exception of Peters Township. The new additions will join the league on a probationary period in 2024 with their players being eligible to participate in the three-day tryout from which the Washington County team is selected in 2025.

All told, 21 teams that include some 250 13 and 14-year-olds will compete against each other in Washington County on the baseball field. They will then take part in a three-day tryout to determine the 15 players who will represent Washington County as the automatic qualifier in the Pony World Series.

It’s exciting news for Washington County baseball and for the Pony World Series, which has become a must-see event in recent years as the local team has performed very well in the tournament.

Last year’s team advanced to the finals for the first time in decades before losing, 8-2, to Edogawa, Japan, in a game that was 2-1 entering the seventh inning.

This year’s World Series will be held Aug. 9-14.

(Editor’s note: Lolley is the president of the Founders League).

Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.