Does anyone know why Fields fell?

Toast88

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During the draft telecast, Joel Klatt made a point to say that this concern was largely unfounded. He said that many analysts don’t understand the Ohio State offensive scheme. He noted that they run a read route offense where Fields is required to hold the ball longer.

Ryan Day also went through some examples where Fields went through 3,4,5 reads. I realize he's his college coach and will probably be his biggest advocate, but after watching more tape on Fields, I'm not concerned about this idea that he can't process his reads.

It's true that he holds the ball for a while and that his thought process will need to speed up to NFL levels, but that's true of any college QBs going to the pros. I'm not any more concerned than I would be for any other good college quarterback going to the NFL.
 

hebs

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I've seen a few things whether I agree with them or not.

1) Processing - He can take too long to read the field and can have some Rex Grossman sacks where he just looks overwhelmed.
2) Epilepsy (I don't think this is it)
3) He doesn't "Love" football (I think this is somehow related to his demeanor, but can't say for sure).
4) He isn't very intense in his leadership.
5) The book on him is to blitz heavy and in the NFL, those will get home faster and give him less time to do the thing he isn't the best at. Also, the windows of open receivers on the blitz is likely smaller in the NFL.

Yeah, I don't get it either... Scheming to his strengths and skillset will maximize his results early on and offset most of those concerns. (a la Lamar Jackson) Designed rollouts and moving the pocket along with RPOs and play action will help neutralize a pass rush, especially against a 4.4 QB with a big arm.

I've not heard any rumors about less than stellar leadership skills. Ryan Day praised his work ethic and leadership.
 

Gustavus Adolphus

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So at first I didn't care why he fell. And whatever the reason is, I've gathered enough from people in the media talking around it to guess that it wasn't a real legit concern but it did spook some teams from selecting him because they didn't thoroughly investigate.

Beyond that, the only other thing I know is that the idea of him dropping because of race was universally dismissed because Trey Lance did end up going second, and this was being admitted by people who said they intentionally first thought it was because of race.

Did anyone ever find out what the rumors going around actually were?

I've already heard people on ESPN and 670 The score make reference to the rumors but no one will identify what the rumors exactly were.

Just curious if anyone heard anything
He's a member of Al-Qaeda.
 

mbison

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So at first I didn't care why he fell. And whatever the reason is, I've gathered enough from people in the media talking around it to guess that it wasn't a real legit concern but it did spook some teams from selecting him because they didn't thoroughly investigate.

Beyond that, the only other thing I know is that the idea of him dropping because of race was universally dismissed because Trey Lance did end up going second, and this was being admitted by people who said they intentionally first thought it was because of race.

Did anyone ever find out what the rumors going around actually were?

I've already heard people on ESPN and 670 The score make reference to the rumors but no one will identify what the rumors exactly were.

Just curious if anyone heard anything
I have been searching online for 2 days for the answer and the Truth is there really isn’t one. The only thing I can think of is that there was a lot of competition this year and everyone just fell in love who they fell in love with. I can’t remember any draft where 5 QBs could have all been selected in the top 5
 

FoCo

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He has a lot more tape then some of the other guys. If you are looking for things not to like about him you can find them if you look hard enough. I've heard some teams may have over analyzed him.
 

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?Ghey??
 

Mdbearz

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Yeah the two games he looked bad on (NW, Indy) along with his throwing motion were the main negatives I heard.

I couldn’t care less about 2 bad games given his body of work.

The throwing motion was the only one that I would worry about, but that can either be corrected or hopefully won’t even need to be.
Agree, does it need to be corrected? If you have a QB that struggles with accuracy and it can be related to his mechanics, then it MUST be addressed. In Fields case, if you try to fine tune his mechanics throughout TC and Pre Season (will we have games this year?), and if he does not start you can continue to do drills, but to overhaul his mechanics, might be detrimental.
 

playthrough2001

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Yes, ten other teams thankfully selected other players.
 

satchice

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The thing is that it is kind of silly to compare Fields with any other QB in the draft other then Lawrence. There is a very realistic case to be made that Fields was the best QB prospect in the draft, Lawrence and him were always the #1 and #2 prospect since high school. He played the tougher competition then Lawrence.

Trevor Lawrence (24 games)-Justin Fields (20 games) comparison since 2019:
Lawrence: 58 TD passes, 16 rushing TDs, 12 INTs, 7,192 total yards, 9.26 yards per attempt, 67.2 completion percentage.
Fields: 56 TD passes, 14 rushing TDs, 8 INTs, 5,552 total yards, 9.25 yards per attempt, 68.9 completion percentage.

If Fields played the extra 4 games with the easy opponents on a better team, you would have to think his stats would be much better then Lawrence's. Their resumes are almost identical except Lawrence has a NC, but that didnt help Watson much. I'm sad to say but Lawrence's best trait over Fields is his complexion.

Anyway you look at it I am stocked and honestly believe in 4 years the top 5 QB ranking will look something like
Mahomes
Fields
Herbert
Lawrence
Allen/Mayfield
 

jerkstore

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The italicized quoted below is something I put into another thread, but I’m going to add a little to it now.

“Why did he slide you ask?

•Lawrence and Fields have been neck and neck since H.S. and Fields’ success threatens the anointed golden god that is T. Lawrence.

•Fields’ talents, even his mechanics, challenge preconceptions of what a QB, especially a “black QB”, can/should be. Fields is often euphemistically referred to as a running QB though he has always been more of a pocket passer.

•Orlovsky’s report of work ethic concerns, the epilepsy leak, the characterization as a “one-read and run” guy, and so on were all put out there to explain what was really a fall based on Fields’ threat to QB norms in general and Lawrence’s throne in particular.

•Chris Simms’ Low Ranking of Fields: In ‘18 Simms had Lamar Jackson as his top QB, a call which Simms has used to defend his position on Fields. However, as truly generational athlete at the position Jackson fits the traditional QB stereotypes more comfortably than Fields who prefers to win from the pocket. There is a secondary wrinkle here in that Jackson was clearly being underrated by both the media and the league so Simms was able to play the “white knight” role in this instance.”


Additional thought:

•Trey Lance was taken at #3 despite a body of work that clearly shows a player with a less developed skill set than Fields. I think you can attribute this to two things—Lance’s mechanics lack the idiosyncrasies of Fields’ and the way Lance presents himself to the media is more in line with NFL expectations.

Trey Lance:


Justin Fields:


And here’s Zach Wilson:


•Perhaps you think these points are all a stretch, and you may be correct—I really don’t know—but it’s important to keep in mind that Fields’ college career was marked by racism from the outset by what went down at Georgia. To his credit Fields has continually downplayed the events that lead to his transfer. Still, after all the B.S. storylines and scouting reports of the last few months why should we assume that Fields’ NFL career has begun any differently?
 

benplace

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Fields fell for one simple reason, all of the teams after the 49ers simply were not looking for a QB. The Broncos could have taken him but were in the middle of the "We are getting Aaron Rodgers" fiasco.
Teams always want to avoid a QB controversy and making their starter doubt their allegiance to him. Carolina has Darnold now, thats their guy. It's not that teams didn't want Fields, we were just lucky with the situation the teams were in that drafted up until spot 11.
We need to be thanking Aaron Rodgers for leaking that he wants out of GB (FTP) the day of the draft and making Denver think they were getting him. (Hopefully they still do) and we also need to thank the Cowboys and Eagles for making a trade allowing the Eagles to take the guy the Giants wanted, which in turn led to them trading down with us.
Bear Down!
 

Milky

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He reminds of Belichick in front of the media. Like he has no desire to be there whatsoever and can't wait to get out of the situation. He comes off as anxious in those situations IMO and that kind of makes it feel like he doesn't care when the fact may be he just doesn't like cameras in his face. He wants to play in the big moments doesn't want the media spotlight.

Not a knock on him as I'd more than likely be the same way.
 

ThatGuyRyan

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They pretty much said the same thing about Cam Newton coming out of college, if this draft is next year he's going #1.. if this draft is 2020 he's probably going #1.
 

Marley's Liberality

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This whole idea of "slide" or "fell" is really just the non NFL employed "draft experts" being incorrect in their mocks. It is easier and better for their careers to say that a person fell rather than to say that they incorrectly assessed the situation.

Jenkins didn't fall either. He was incorrectly assessed. That one is even clearer as he lasted almost 20 picks beyond the non NFL employed draft experts perceptions.

It's all a fiction. Don't be deceived
 

ijustposthere

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He left Georgia for Ohio State because he couldn't beat out Jake Fromm for starting job. Fromm went I think in 5th round and is 3rd string for Buffalo.
The Fromm thing is sus af
It's also not true. He left because of racism. One of the star baseball players threw racial slurs at him.

 

DaaBears

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It's also not true. He left because of racism. One of the star baseball players threw racial slurs at him.


I mentioned that in another post, but much more articles talk about him transferring for playing time like the article here.
 

Visionman

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He was the 4th QB taken and “fell” only to the 11th pick. How many times do 4 QBs go in the top 11?

And the only reason he “fell” out of the top 10 is because Fangio doesn’t believe in offense...lol
 

Kenny Loggins

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Don't understand the thinking behind this question. Most "experts" had him at the second best QB in the draft and by luck we got him. The guy won at THE Ohio State that's all that matters. If these writers, coaches etc would be honest and just take a look at other star players they could nitpick something that may be different in how they play the game. God can't we just be happy that we selected him to play for our team? Too bad we live in a time where people love to play the negative card. Like the greatest country ever formed but to some they just have to bring up something that happened 200 years ago.
 

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I mentioned that in another post, but much more articles talk about him transferring for playing time like the article here.
I'm sure he didn't want to highlight the incident. It's fine if that's what you want to believe and that it had no effect on his decision. We'll just agree to disagree.
 

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