The Steelers New QB Problem
The Steelers have the worst “best” problem in football: a quarterback controversy.
We know what this means. It means you don’t have a good enough QB to lead the team (most of the time, I will name exceptions later). It reminds me of Syndrome’s comment in The Incredibles. If everyone is special, nobody will be. If you have two starters, you actually have none.
Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation is not very enviable. On one hand, you have a very cheap former star who is well past his prime and has not churned out a good performance for several years. Russ is going to have to do a lot to prove he is not washed up. But at least he’s cheap. Thanks, Broncos. On the other hand, you have a draft bust who spent several seasons falling far short of expectations on bad teams, and who decided to clean house when presented with a shiny new toy from USC. Now both of these bums are duking it out for a place in an organization that has stumbled over its own two feet trying to find a solution at QB ever since Large Benjamin decided to finally fuck off. I’m actually surprised the Steelers haven’t gotten more shit for how bad the QB room has been since Fats McRape left the building. The Pudgy Predator wasn’t even a Mike Tomlin pick, he inherited him. Maybe Mike Tomlin sucks at developing QBs. Can we make this a national talking point?
So far in camp there’s been some QB drama. Russ hasn’t been practicing as much as expected, nursing some pains. Fields has apparently been playing better than expected. Now we have the problem. Which of these guys actually gets the gig? Russ is still the presumed starter at this point but Russ is not a confident choice and he’s very unlikely to be the long-term option anyway. He’s here because he’s cheap on loan from Denver and he’s better than Kenny “Enemy of Osaka” Pickett. This is easily Russ’s last chance to be relevant. If he fails in Pittsburgh the best he can hope for is backup gig until he retires. Considering that he’s already at least a mild risk of losing his job, that’s bad!
Fields actually has a chance to turn things around here. The pressure is on Russ. Fields is considered a bust and a backup now. He can let loose. He can bury himself in the game. He can stop giving a fuck. If Justin Fields fails, Steeler Nation will merely sigh. But if Fields succeeds? He probably won’t command a huge contract, and the Steelers are back in business. Fields could save Pittsburgh from itself. He would have to stop fumbling and scrambling into linebackers and throwing the ball into the dirt but hey, anything is possible. I guarantee that there are factions of Steelers fans rooting for Fields over Russ. They aren’t quite wrong to do so.
So Pittsburgh’s future hinges on either of these two dummies. The only times I can remember a QB controversy working out was Dak/Romo and, ironically, Russ/Flynn. In both cases the expected starter was usurped by a mid-round rookie who proved to be much better in preseason than anyone expected. That’s a different scenario than two has-beens fighting for redemption. Dak didn’t even beat out Romo, Romo got hurt and Dak simply never gave the job back. Matt Flynn never should have been there in the first place.
Hey, not having a true starter is a bad problem. But it could be worse. Kenny Pickett is in danger of losing the backup job in Philly. No matter who the Steelers roll with this season, they still upgraded.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Montana/Young as a successful QB battle, even if that’d be the equivalent of Brady & Fields (Steve Young was a bust on the creamsickle Bucs before San Fran) or Jay Schroder/Doug Williams (an actually good QB from the creamsickle Bucs).
Montana/Young is the gold standard for QB controversies, a truly rare occurrence caused by mounting injuries and Hugh Culverhouse being a dumbfuck and not understanding how to use a guy like Steve Young.
I also love the ones caused by an entitled fanbase who’ve just had their franchise QB sail off into the sunset and don’t understand that great QBs don’t just fall out of the sky *coughPatriots* *coughCowboys*, like when Danny White kept losing the NFCCG and the fans demanded the great Gary Hogeboom step in his place with his mighty 7 TD/14 Int ratio.
Sorta-kinda McNabb and Vick when they both played in Philly at the same time and Reid would swap them out mid-drive to do different kinds of plays. That was fun and neither seemed to mind.
What was the least inspiring battle where expectations were essentially zero? I don’t count rookies\1st time starters in this because you always have that “What if” factor. I’m talking two or more journeymen that have never been consistently good in a battle with no outside factors.
How about Tommy Maddox and Kordell Stewart, also on the Steelers? Maddox was brought in after good work in the XFL to be a backup and mostly did that for a season and half before taking the job away from Slash, who’d always been “almost good enough” and had already lost the starter gig once on the Steelers.
Kenny probably thought it would be less embarrassing if he knew he had no shot at starting vs losing the job to Russ. That backfired in the funniest way possible.
Is this a reference to your Tebow vs Sanchez comic way back at the start of the Draw Play?
I have been reading this comic for a long time, correct.
this is the tebow right?
I have nothing against Fields as a player or as a person, but the discourse around him might be the most annoying there currently is about any QB not named Aaron Rodgers.
I thought Tanner McKee was criminally underrated coming out of college, and I would not be surprised to see him become a starter in the NFL at some point. Obviously he won’t supplant Hurts barring an injury, but I could see him making the most of any time he’s forced into action and getting a prove-it deal to start somewhere else.
Except of course Pickett is great and was hindered by Canada. He’ll easily be QB2, then take over from Hurts when he’s benched in Week 8.