It seems as though Justin Fields has played his last game as a Buckeye. After last week’s announcement that the B1G 10 will postpone their fall 2020 season, Fields was reportedly and understandably unhappy. He denied questions at a conference and posted a cryptic tweet reading only “Smh…”
One can reasonably assume that if a spring season is to be played for Ohio State, Fields will bypass the season and prepare for the NFL draft.
Fields is already a potential Top-10 pick. His tantalizing sophomore season with the Bucks was one for the books. Fields was a Heisman finalist and did an excellent job of filling the shoes left by Dwayne Haskins. Starting only 15 games in his career, Fields made those games count.
The extra season matters
Since 2000, only 5 quarterbacks have been selected in the first round after starting a lone season in college. Mark Sanchez, Cam Newton, Mitch Trubisky, Kyler Murray, and Dwayne Haskins. Two of the most successful of these guys, Newton and Murray, won the Heisman in their respective years. The other three (as of right now) have not found a lot of success in the NFL. I’m still high on Haskins and think he has superstar potential. That being said, Haskins needed an extra year. From a passing standpoint, Haskins was eons ahead of JF, and still struggled in his first few starts in the NFL. He gained traction and found some poise in the pocket later, finishing with a 7-7 TD/INT ratio. Even a year ago I thought that Haskins needed another year, after being the starter for one lone season, much like Fields has.
However, skipping this next season is not in his best interest.
There are aspects of his game that need to be worked out if he is to prepare for the next level. Though he was an accurate QB this past season, I’d like to see him expand on better ball placement and not over/under throwing the ball. He only accounted for 3 interceptions on the season, (2 in the playoffs, again one of which wasn’t his fault), but he showed signs of poor and ill-advised decision making. Some of his passes were telegraphed and occasionally failed to look beyond his first option. There were plenty of plays throughout the season which he got lucky were not picked off, but this goes for all quarterbacks.
A lot of these mistakes do not fly in the NFL, which again supports that he could use an extra year to buff out some of these scratches.
Where does Fields fit in the NFL?
Increasing his draft stock doesn’t even matter at this point because there aren’t many teams who desperately need a QB. I’ve been seeing that the Jaguars are the favorite to draft Trevor Lawrence, which doesn’t make much sense to me. I love Minshew Mania and was thoroughly impressed by him this year. Everyone is quick to hate on him, but in my mind, he’s a Great Value Russell Wilson and deserved OROY, but that’s an argument for another day.
That being said, the only team I feel is in real QB trouble as of right now is Pittsburgh, who needs a successor to Big Ben. Even then, I can’t see the Steelers tanking or doing badly enough to be able to take Justin Fields early, as he’ll be gone by the time they pick, barring a trade.
Justin Fields shouldn’t be looking to be the day 1 starter on any franchise. Although there is another season to be played, as it stands right now there are only backup spots for him. He should be spending this time gaining more experience so he can enter the NFL as the best version of himself possible.
To sit out, or to not sit out
Justin Fields has absolutely thrown his name in the hat as possibly the most talented quarterback OSU football has ever seen. However, skipping the season makes no sense. He can still benefit from playing an all B1G schedule and possibly even a bowl against the PAC12. This would require a spring season to be played.
Sitting at home most of the time and individual quarterback workouts will not help Fields in the same way a season would. I understand his frustration wholeheartedly, I just don’t see why skipping a season would help him in the slightest.