The NFL’s new kickoff rules will bring more activity to a play that faded close to extinction in past years. As a result, teams will likely spend more energy on finding return specialists in 2024.
According to one Pittsburgh Steelers player, a coach floated an unconventional option.
During a live draft party hosted by Steelers teammate Cameron Heyward, Jaylen Warren was asked if he’d want to return kickoffs under the new rules. The running back said he’d be open to the task before claiming that someone suggested Justin Fields as an option.
“Our special teams coordinator was talking about Justin Fields being back there,” Warren said. “We looked at him like, ‘Justin Fields is gonna be back there?’ I don’t know. I think it’s cool.”
Later in the interview, Warren brought up Fields when pressed to name the team’s fastest player. He thinks it’s either the new Steelers quarterback or wide receiver Calvin Austin III, who ran a 4.32 40-yard dash in 2022.
“He’s a do-it-all athlete,” Warren said of Fields.
Fields showcased his wheels when amassing 1,143 rushing yards in 2022, the second-highest single-season tally for a quarterback behind Lamar Jackson’s 1,206 in 2019. Yet teams typically do everything in their power to protect quarterbacks from hits, so putting one on kickoffs would be quite the unorthodox move.
It’s also possible (if not likely) that the coordinator was joking. Or maybe it was an idea mentioned once and quickly shut down.
Then again, the former Chicago Bears quarterback is likely to open the 2024 season on the bench behind Russell Wilson. Warren called it a “night and day difference” with those two new quarterbacks in the room.