Justin Fields tells newspaper he likely won’t return kicks

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields said he doesn’t have the mindset of sitting behind Russell Wilson all year but that also doesn’t mean the former first-round pick will be switching positions to get snaps.

Earlier this month, Steelers running back Jaylen Warren told the “Not Just Football” podcast that Pittsburgh’s special teams coordinator had considered Fields to return kicks.

Fields, however, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he’s “not here to do that.”

Warren’s claim led to much speculation on social media about whether fans would see the quarterback returning kicks this season.

Fields told the newspaper that people “kind of interpreted it wrong.”

“(Steelers special teams) Coach Danny (Smith) was basically just trying to send a message that no matter who you are, you could be on special teams. He just used that as an example,” Fields told the Post-Gazette.

Pittsburgh signed Wilson this offseason after he was released by the Denver Broncos.

Fields said that he’d previously communicated, through his agent, to Bears GM Ryan Poles that the Steelers were his preferred destination and “definitely thought the door was shut” after Wilson joined the team.

“I wanted to be here before Russell got here and after, too,” Fields said. “It was more so the team. Not even worried who was here or none of that stuff.”

Fields was dealt to Pittsburgh after a three-year tenure in Chicago. Fields went 10-28 as the starter, completing 60.3 percent of his passes for 6,674 yards. Over that span, he also committed the seventh-most turnovers in the league (41) and was sacked a league-high 135 times.

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(Photo: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)