On Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin addressed a limited number of the press from the NFL annual meeting in Orlando. Tomlin talked at length (for Tomlin) about what brought the team to the point of trading away quarterback Kenny Pickett and then trading for Justin Fields as his replacement.

Tomlin made it very clear the move to trade Pickett was initiated by Pickett after the team signed veteran Russell Wilson. But Tomlin also gave the impression the wheels of the Fields trade were already in motion before Pickett asked to be traded and because they were going well the team was willing to oblige.

“From his perspective, he felt like a change of scenery would be a good thing,” Tomlin said. “Obviously when we felt the trajectory of the business with Chicago moving in the right direction, those dominoes started falling.”

It’s not an unreasonable conclusion to draw that if the situation with the Chicago Bears wasn’t moving forward, the Steelers might have respectfully declined Pickett’s interest in being traded and let him stay on the roster.

Story originally appeared on Steelers Wire