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.