The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Fields has motivation to be great after scrutiny
Imagine being a kid who had just wrapped up your college years and on the doorstep of entering the work force.
By all accounts, you’ve done made all the right moves to make yourself marketable in “the real world.”
You showed up every day to class.
You never bombed a test.
Your practical experience was so glowing it screams “hire me!”
Then when you put your resume out there, you spend week after week being told what’s wrong with you and why you’re not right for the job.
Welcome to the life of an NFL prospect.
More specifically, welcome to the life of former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
Ever since Fields
wrapped up his playing career with the Buckeyes with a 52-24 loss to Alabama in the college football national championship game on Jan. 11, it was a foregone conclusion that the 6-foot-3, 227-pound signal-caller was headed to the NFL.
On Jan. 11 when he declared himself eligible for the April draft, Fields’ star was on the rise.
Over the past threeplus months, no high-level prospect in this year’s draft has been picked apart more than the young man who in two years in an elite Ohio State program completed 67.2 percent of his passes for 3,273 yards and 41 touchdowns against only three interceptions, while also running for 484 yards and 10 scores.
Ohio State went 20-2 in those games, including two CFP playoff appearances, but the criticisms of Fields has been off the rails.
“One, I have heard that he is a last-guy-in, firstguy-out type of quarterback,” said NFL pundit Dan Orlovsky of Fields. “Like, not the maniacal work ethic.
“The second thing is ... where is his desire to go be a great quarterback?”
To a person, everyone at Ohio State — including coach Ryan Day — refuted the claims relayed by Orlovsky from the everso-prevalent nameless sources.
“People don’t realize Justin Fields was a bigtime high school baseball player,” said another NFL pundit Chris Mortensen. “He also was getting ready to play baseball at Ohio State last year.
“So he was actually going between two sports, getting ready and then the pandemic — are they or aren’t they — those type of things might have messed with his mechanics just a little bit.”
Fields hasn’t played a baseball game since his first year at Georgia, prior to transferring to Ohio State.
Yet apparently, his baseball past is a problem — again from a unnamed source.
Pro Football Network — hey, at least there’s a named source for this one — chronicled how Fields never looks away from his primary target. They broke down all of Fields’ passes in 2020.
“... just seven times, he looked off the primary target,” the report said. “The other 200-plus passes he threw to his primary target.”
Fields, who has done an exemplary job not biting when baited, countered this claim by pointing out that he’s not going to go to his third, fourth or fifth option on a play just to show he can do it — especially when Option 1 and Option 2 (Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave) are always open.
So where does all this stuff come from?
NFL prospects are under a microscope anyway. Between tape from their college games, combines, pro day workouts and interviews, there’s not much that slides by NFL scouts and coaches who are doing everything they can to make sure they don’t “miss” on their picks in the upcoming draft.
Hence the intense scrutiny of all players, including Fields.
Here’s another theory to consider.
Perhaps all the scrutiny thrown Fields’ way — again, by and large by unnamed sources — were intentionally planted with the intent of scaring teams off from taking him in hopes that he slips down the draft boards a little.
He has a questionable work ethic.
He used to play baseball, so that messed with his throwing mechanics.
He doesn’t know how to go through his progressions.
It would be the old NFL bait-and-switch. Drop hints and innuendo that a player isn’t right for your team only to snatch him up when you’re on the clock.
Maybe the unnamed sources are right. Maybe Justin Fields won’t be a the franchise quarterback in the NFL.
After all, how many quarterbacks with the “can’t-miss” label turn out to be misses?
This much we can bank on: One of the traits an NFL quarterback must have is thick skin.
In that respect, the ultra-talented Fields should be ready to roll with whichever team picks him on April 29 because he’s heard it all since his last college game on Jan. 11.