Pittsburgh Review

The Steelers held a joint practice against the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium, and for quarterback Justin Fields, it was a welcome change.

"It's kind of cool going up against other guys, a different defense than we've seen for the past few weeks," said Fields. "A different skillset. So, it's always fun. It felt good. I think the offense had a pretty good day. We executed pretty well. There's always room to improve, but overall, a good day."

While Russell Wilson will start at quarterback on Saturday night against the Bills at Acrisure Stadium in the team's second preseason game, Fields is also expected to see playing time and aims to make continued progress.

"Just continue to get better," said Fields. "Put points up on the board and really just clean play. Of course, last game we had a few mishaps with the C-QB exchange. But the biggest thing is ball security, pre-snap cleanliness, and putting points up on the board at the end of day, no matter how we do it."

Fields mentioned that they continue to emphasize the quarterback-center exchange, an issue in their loss to the Houston Texans in the preseason opener.

"We work on it before every practice," said Fields. "You just got to know the different tendencies between each center. Know when they're going right, when they're going left, what they tend to do and stuff like that."

Rookie center Zach Frazier, drafted by the Steelers in the second round this year, worked with the first-team offense during Thursday's joint practice with extended reps.

"Zach's a hard worker," said Fields. "He's humble, doesn't say much, but boy he works. So glad to have him on the line."

The joint practice concluded Steelers training camp—a period Fields found extremely valuable as a newcomer.

"I think it was a great experience for me personally," said Fields. "You build relationships with guys on the team that I think I'm closer with now than I would have been if we would have done camp here and everybody would've went back home."

From his perspective, Fields gained better understanding and comfort with an entirely new offense under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

"The biggest thing for me coming in was learning the new offense," said Fields.

Rookie center Zach Frazier welcomed his extensive action with the first-team offense during Thursday's joint practice.

"I found out yesterday," said Frazier about getting those reps. "It was nice to get all those reps and take advantage of that opportunity."

Frazier emphasized building chemistry through repeated C-Q exchanges.

"The C-Q exchange is just all about cadence," said Frazier.

Tight end Connor Heyward also saw extended work through training camp under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and viewed it as successful.

"It was good," said Heyward about training camp including joint practices with Bills at Acrisure Stadium.

Heyward appreciated finishing off camp with joint practices against another opponent as an opportunity to gauge their performance outside preseason games.

"It was my first joint practice," said Heyward. "It was nice to go out there...and see if it works on other people."

Heyward noted that physicality marked this year's training camp under Coach Mike Tomlin’s direction.

"A lot of guys will say this was one of the most physical Steelers camps," added Heyward.

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