What’s happening in Steel City? First six games of the regular season: All hail Justin Fields. Next seven: All hail Russell Wilson. Then came the last five games of their season, which left the whole Pittsburgh Steelers fandom divided over a simple question. Who will be the starting QB for the Steelers in the following season? It all started when the team signed Fields and Wilson for a one-year contract, but both are set to hit free agency in the off-season.

Here’s the thing: As per Steelers team president Art Rooney II, they intend to re-sign one of the two QBs in question. “That’ll be a priority, and I think that will give us the best opportunity to move forward. Obviously, we’ll be looking in the draft as well. We’ve got a whole quarterback room to fill, and so there’s jobs open in there,” he stated.

The most ideal scenario for Rooney would be signing a multi-year agreement with a quarterback and having a starter and backup, both with similar skill sets. Now if we are talking about a multi-year deal, age would be an inevitable point of discussion. While Wilson is 36 and also stated that he wants to continue playing, we wonder if the team will have a difficult time choosing him owing to his age.

That’s where the former NFL QB and current analyst Chase Daniel comes in. Daniel has advice for Tomlin; Something that half of the Steelers fanbase wants to see happening. And what’s that?

“You look at the age. Rus is 36, Justin Fields is 26. And then the most important thing obviously, I’m going towards they need to keep Fields is, the money. Because let’s be real. They need so help… specifically on the offensive line. They need help. If you sign Rus back, it’s probably a three-year, $120 million deal with $70-$80 million guaranteed… If you get Justin Fields back, you get him for $5-$10 million a year max. Maybe $7 million. So, two-year and $14 million or two-year and $80 million? And you are pretty much getting the same results out of the two.

“I think that Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, I think he prefers Justin Fields because of his running abilities. And look, I agree Russell is the better player but got to look at this from a pure monetary standpoint. Do you want to pay $80 million over three years ot do you want to pay $10 million over two years for a guy that gets you the same result. That’s why I’m going Fields,” Daniel stated.

The 25-year-old gave a solid foundation to the Steel City in the regular season with a 4-2 record. Of course, Wilson came out hotter and continued the legacy with 6-1. But no, his last five games are roaring louder than his first seven and that includes the wild card loss against their bitter rivals. I mean, it added another year to their postseason drought.

So, what do we know and what have we learned? Well, the Steelers are about to throw a whole lot of their offseason into finally putting those quarterback worries to bed. Because, of course, they don’t want to continue the same frustration in the locker room for the next season as well.

Is Justin Fields the answer to Steel City’s postseason drought?

Let us go back to Art Rooney II. Sure, he wants to see either one of the QBs continue their run with the Steelers. But clearly, it’s not going to be the both of them. He seems interested in looking at the draft for a backup.

“It sort of takes two to tango, and so we’ll see where it goes,” Rooney said. “I think my preference would probably be to have something more than a one-year (deal) in place next time around. We’ll see where it takes us.”

“I think both of them see themselves as starters, and I don’t know that they want to share the same job again next year. I would say most likely we won’t wind up bringing both back.”

Just like last year, the main priority for the Steelers this offseason is their quarterback and they will have to make a final decision. Now, the long-time Steelers’ reporter Mark Kaboly was with his co-host, Chris Mack, on their show, ‘

Kaboly and Mack’, to break down Rooney’s meeting with the media. Spoiler alert: He cracked the code on Rooney’s quarterback plans—or, in his words, the Steelers’ “master plan.” So what did he say? “I actually think I just figured this out,” explained Kaboly.

“I know which direction they’re going. Who did they sign to their practice squad recently? The futures? And what kind of quarterback is Skylar Thompson? Mobile. He mentioned he would like to streamline that offense or the quarterback room. So if the only guy you have under contract fits this bill. That makes sense, the rest of them fall in line, another reason to believe that they would prefer Fields.”

So, the Steelers recently signed Thompson to a reserve/future contract. And if the team is looking for a mobile QB, then it looks like they’ve set their eyes on Fields as their starting QB. But here’s the kicker. Despite his solid performance in the first six games, Kaboly believes that Fields was extremely fortunate in those games.

“We sort of have revisionist history about those first six games,” said Kaboly. “Okay, he played well enough to win, but how many times, how fortunate did he get with turnovers? There were picks dropped; there had to be four or five fumbles that he owned. You can’t say he only turned the ball over twice in those first six games. I think he got extremely fortunate.”

Honestly, he’s not wrong. Fields fumbled half a dozen times this season, and that’s what concerning for Kaboly. But at the end of the day, he still believes that the Steelers are gonna bring Fields over Russell because he is younger and more athletic. Now, it’s up to Rooney to decide, but one thing’s for sure, it’ll be exciting to see who’s gonna be the Steelers’ QB1.