As we get closer and closer to the NFL draft, these incoming prospects become the talk of the football world. Analysts may talk about their pros and cons as a player or what team will they end up with among other draft storyline plots. However, I don’t think there has been one player who has been scrutinized more than Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
I’ve heard everything from him locking onto his first read and doesn’t look off of it to some even questioning his desire to become a great quarterback at the next level. In my opinion, this is just slander. No other way to put it but slander.
Fields since he was in high school had high expectations for himself. Fields was the #1 DUAL QB in the 2018 recruiting class along with being the #2 overall player in the class behind Trevor Lawrence. Fields initially played for his home state school the Georgia Bulldogs but after his freshman season Fields transferred to Ohio State where from there he went on to have a magnificent career for the Buckeyes.
Fields in 22 games for the Buckeyes, finished with a 20-2 record, throwing for 5,373 passing yards 63 touchdowns, and only 9 interceptions while adding 867 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns. Phenomenal career numbers.
Fields had been seen coming into this past college football season as the clear consensus QB2 behind Lawrence and now I have seen Fields ranked by some people as low as the QB6 in this class. What caused this dramatic shift in rankings with Fields?
It started with this false narrative that Fields has a lot of trouble going through his progressions and throwing off of his first read. This was started when we heard ESPN Draft Analyst Todd McShay say that Fields was charted as throwing the ball off of his first read 7 times last season based on research from an unnamed NFL team. I’m not entirely sure where that unnamed team got that number from but that is a completely false statement. Here’s a video I found on Twitter in the Clemson game of Fields having 8 throws that weren’t to his first read
https://twitter.com/MrOH1O/status/1377959970138902528?s=20
Fields can go through his progressions and read the field just fine. That whole narrative is just ridiculous. To even further the point that he can go through his progressions fine, PFF even gave him the highest grade for quarterbacks throwing past their first read since 2019.
The other narrative that has since been retracted was this narrative that Fields doesn’t strive to be a great quarterback and his work ethic had been in question. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was on the Pat McAfee show and he had shared some reports that he was told about Fields.
https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1377378404840960002?s=20
If you want to know about Fields’ work ethic, Mark Sanchez was also on the Pat McAfee show and he talked about a test for all athletes that test their ability to pick up information and recall it. Fields scored the highest ever out of 6,500 professional athletes.
https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1379476731015364614?s=20
A source told FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman that the narrative about his bad work ethic was “further from the truth. If anyone could have opted out & still got drafted high, it was him. He stayed & worked hard on his craft. He goes vegan to maintain his body. He’s the ultimate competitor."
How about this play right here?
https://twitter.com/BuckyBrooks/status/1365390540884217857?s=20
If that doesn’t scream effort then I don’t know what does.
I would never question a professional athlete’s work ethic because everyone has the same goal. Fields’ dream is to play in the NFL and to get his body in shape and to be able to play at the level that he does take hard work, an NFL draft selection isn’t just given to you.
I can recall a couple of times in Fields’ career at Ohio State where he had gotten shaken up on one of the previous plays and he came back in the game and threw a touchdown the very next time he stepped on the field.
Against Michigan back in 2019, Fields injured his knee and had to get a brace on it. Fields when he came back in the game threw this laser to Garrett Wilson.
https://twitter.com/NeelMadhavan/status/1205998872285331457?s=20
The other time was in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson in 2021 where Fields took a massive shot to his ribs which had been revealed later that he broke his ribs on that hit. Fields didn’t miss a play and came back in to throw a touchdown pass to Chris Olave to help Ohio State ultimately win that game and move onto the National Championship game.
https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1345197419647148033?s=20
To me, that just says everything I need to know about Fields. He has a lot of heart, he has a lot of guts, and he wants to be great.
He is going to be a special quarterback I believe at the next level. He has the physical tools, he’s a winner, and he wants to be great with his elite work ethic. If Fields is the 4th or 5th quarterback off the board like I have seen from multiple mock drafts, those teams would be making a huge mistake in not taking a chance on this kid. I don’t care that he is an Ohio State quarterback and how they have had a bad track record of quarterbacks in the NFL, Fields is different from those guys and I am willing to bet on him.