Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields have done a good job acclimating themselves to their new teammates, and they treated the offensive line to a nice dinner at the Capital Grille. Nate Herbig, Broderick Jones, and Dan Moore Jr. talked about Wilson and Fields and the two of them treating the big boys up front to a dinner.
“They each have their own dynamic, but they definitely bring energy in their own ways, being leaders, on and off the field. Even outside of playing, getting guys together, and doing things together. You can definitely feel those guys for sure,” Moore said about Fields and Wilson via Steelers.com.
“We offensive linemen, you know we got to eat, so they took us out, wined and dined us a little bit,” he added and said that the dinner was at Capital Grille.
Herbig said that while Wilson and Fields can’t eat like the offensive lineman, he’s “super excited” to be working with both of them. Jones said the offensive line tries to go out to dinner together once a week, and it’s important to be able to implement the quarterbacks.
“It’s just been good getting to know one another. There’s some things we did last year, we’ve always been doing that, especially as an O-line, we always go out to dinner once a week, or we try to do it once a week. Just implementing the quarterbacks into it, it’s a big deal, because we gotta trust them, they gotta trust us, so it all correlates and works into one. So for us to build that trust and build that relationship to get to know each other, I feel like it helps us when we get on the field,” Jones said.
It’s obviously important for new quarterbacks in the room to build a relationship with the offensive linemen since they’re the guys who are protecting them upfront. Building that extra level of trust is also important since the quarterback will make calls for the line, and the line has to trust what the quarterback is seeing and telling them to do. As Jones said, something like taking them out to dinner, even if it’s just to talk, helps add another layer to that relationship between the quarterbacks and the line and build deeper relationships, and it’s going to help them out when it comes time to get to business on the field.
Wilson said the more time the quarterbacks spend with the line, the better off everyone will be.
“Just to be able to share life experiences with one another, as much as we can, it’s been hectic schedules, it’s been busy, but the more we spend time together the better. So it’s been cool, it was a good dinner, for sure,” Wilson said.
Wilson also took at least some members of the offensive line to a Pirates game earlier this year, and he’s seemingly fitting in well to Pittsburgh’s locker room. One of the big concerns with signing Wilson was how he would be as a teammate, but from everything that he’s done so far, it really doesn’t seem like a problem. In fact, the team has seemed to relish spending time with Wilson and praised how he is as a teammate, and feeding his linemen with a nice steak dinner surely will help strengthen the relationship between him and Fields.
It’s always good to see the team bonding at this point in the offseason, especially with a number of new faces, including at the most important position on the field at quarterback. Everything they’re doing off the field will hopefully translate to success on the field as they further relationships and build trust with the linemen and everyone on the roster.
Even though OTAs are well underway, we still won’t really see how everything translates until the intensity is ramped up during training camp. Going to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe and rooming together will help continue to build that camaraderie with the team, but while everyone’s together in Pittsburgh, now is especially a good time to establish whatever relationships the team can.
Fields and Wilson are new to the team, so really getting to know their teammates is crucial. So far, they both seem to be taking steps to ensure that happens, and that’s not going unnoticed by the rest of the team and the offensive linemen in particular.
