The NFL Madden 25 trailer officially released on Thursday and there was a lot of comments about how things are looking ahead of the release of the game. However, there was one section of the official reveal trailer that has people taking issue with how it looked.
During a kickoff between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers get the ball and catching the kick is none other than new quarterback Justin Fields. In the trailer, he then hands the ball off to Cordarelle Patterson to return the actual kick but people are taking this as a shot to Justin Fields.
While making an appearance on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast in May, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren discussed this actually being a possibility.
“Our special teams coordinator was talking about Justin Fields being back there. We’re like, ‘Hold up, hold up.’ We looked at him like, ‘Justin Fields is about to be back there?’ I don’t know. I think it’s cool.” h/t NFL
It is unclear if this was Madden taking a dig at the potential situation or if it was just EA Sports playing out a potential scenario and generating some additional buzz about their trailer. Justin Fields has not returned a kick of any kind in his NFL career up to this point and it will be interesting to see if this is something that will happen or just a ploy to get opposing teams to think about the scenario.
Will Justin Feilds be returning kicks for the Pittsburgh Steelers just like Madden’s trailer said?
![Madden 25 Trailer Drops Small Jab at Pittsburgh Steelers QB 1 NFL pittsburgh steelers justin fields madden](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_9228.0.webp)
The Pittsburgh Steelers are in an interesting situation with their starting quarterback room after trading away last year’s starter Kenny Pickett. They now have two quarterbacks that are learning the playbook for Mike Tomlin as Fields and Russell Wilson are competing to be the Week 1 starter.
With the price and the draft capital associated with acquiring him, it is more likely that we see Fields get the starting job at this point. While playing under center for the Chicago Bears last season in 13 games, Fields went 5-8 and finished going 227-of-370 (61.4%) for 2,562 yards with 16 passing touchdowns to nine interceptions. However, is legs are a significant threat as well as he is an outstanding running quarterback.
Fields also had 124 rushing attempts for 657 yards (5.3 yards per carry) with four rushing touchdowns to make things open up for the offense. While he could return kicks and add a different look for the Pittsburgh Steelers if he is the backup quarterback, it seems odd to add that level of injury potential to a quarterback that has not played in 16 games in any of his first three seasons.
With Justin Fields being the potential future of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it feels more like a tactical ploy and making it 11 vs. 10 on kickoffs if he is on the field. Tomlin likely will not be putting a quarterback in harm’s way as special teams players could target Fields with the football and attempt to make some major hits to make the Steelers down one of their quarterbacks.
Besides, what good is it to make Justin Fields have to leave quarterback meetings to be part of the special teams practices? The benefits are not there to outweigh the issues.
About the Author
Vincent Pensabene graduated from Saint Leo University in 2019 with a B.A. in Sport Business and has focused on the media side of sports. He writes for multiple publications and is interested in the reasoning of why things happen. Feel free to follow him on social media @TalkVinTalk and discuss all things sports.