Steelers Now
Ex-Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields has some extra motivation as he prepares to play his former team.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets matchup has one of the best storylines of Week 1 with quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields playing their former teams. Fields even has a chance to make NFL history along the way, too.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, if the Jets win on Sunday, Fields will be first quarterback to ever win a season opener for a team in one season and then beat that same team in the season opener the next season.
Fields was traded to the Steelers last offseason with the idea that he would backup veteran Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh. However, he ended up starting the first six games of the season after Wilson suffered a calf injury at the beginning stages of training camp.
During that span, Fields continued to flash the upside that made him the No. 11 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He threw for 1,106 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 231 yards and five more scores while leading the Steelers to a 4-2 start.
However, Pittsburgh still turned back to Wilson when he was fully healthy and Fields never saw the starting lineup again.
Fields then signed a two-year, $40 million deal with New York this offseason after turning down the Steelers’ lesser-guaranteed offer.
He is blocking out the outside noise heading into Sunday’s game against his former team, though.
“There’s no storyline for me,” Fields said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN. “It’s ball for me, so I’ll let you guys kind of handle the storylines, the news lines and stuff like that. In the locker room, we just keep it straight ball.”
Fields may not be fueling any storylines, but there are plenty in this matchup. He and Rodgers will also become just the seventh and eighth quarterbacks to start an opener against a team they started the opener for the previous season.
With Jets facing Steelers Sunday, Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields will be 7th and 8th QBs (and 1st head to head) to start opener vs team they started opener for the previous season per @sportradar. Others:
Russell Wilson vs Seahawks 2022
Baker Mayfield vs Browns 2022
Sam Darnold…— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) September 2, 2025
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Justin Fields Could Make NFL History vs. Steelers in Week 1
