I was wrong about Justin Fields.
Yep, it’s true.
I completely underestimated him this whole time.
I had him ranked as the #2 quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft, but I was wrong about that.
He’s the best quarterback in that draft class.
He should’ve been #1 overall in last year’s draft.
He, not Trevor Lawrence, was the real prize of the 2021 NFL Draft.
If you follow this site you know I never bought into the Zach Wilson hype. And I was raising the red flags on Trey Lance way back before the 2021 draft. I was always low on Trey Lance. And I have always thought of Mac Jones as a JAG. I think Bailey Zappe is already better than him.
I paid my deference to Trevor Lawrence and ranked him #1, because I’m a coward, but I have also expressed concerns over him dating back to April 2021 about some quotes from a profile of him. I am not sure if Trevor Lawrence truly loves the game of football, and is willing to do anything and everything to win. I don’t know if he truly Has That Dawg In Him™. I think he’s a good talent, and I think he’ll be a good NFL quarterback, but I don’t think he’s going to be transcendent or anything.
Fields was always the best quarterback prospect of the 2021 draft, I just was too cowardly to realize it.
I was always far more impressed with him than I was with Lawrence. And yet I always just deferred to the herd, who was in complete agreement that Trevor Lawrence was the unquestioned #1 QB in 2021 and a generational talent.
But Fields was always more explosive, faster, more athletic and had a bigger arm.
That was true back in 2019.
People assume T-Law has a cannon of an arm like Herbert, because he’s 6’6″, but he really doesn’t. He’s got a good arm, of course, it’s not like he’s got a water pistol for an arm; there’s video out there from his pro day of him throwing 65 yards in the air, which is about as good as you can ask for. But Fields has always had the stronger arm. Fields was always a better in-game deep ball thrower I thought. Fields had better wide receivers in college, but I was just more impressed with his ability to throw the deep ball when he and Lawrence were in college.
Today, in November 2022, I think it’s beyond doubt that Fields has emerged as the best QB of the 2021 class. He’s ahead of Lawrence, Mac Jones, Wilson, and Trey Lance and I don’t think it’s really that close.
Yes, the Bears lost to the Dolphins, but it’s because the front office gutted the defense and traded everyone away. As a result, the Bears let up 35 points to Miami and couldn’t stop them at all. The final score ended up being 35-32. And it wasn’t Fields’ fault that the Bears came up short: on 4th and 10, Fields put a pass right on the money to Equanimeous St. Brown that would’ve gone for a first down, but St. Brown just let it sail right through his hands:
Fields has been frequently let down by his receivers this season (they would’ve beaten the Commanders had Mooney been able to haul in that pass at the end on the goal line). There were also some terrible calls/no-calls by the refs in that Dolphins game that all went against the Bears.
The dude ran for more yards than any quarterback has ever run for in a game! 178 yards!
I can’t post YouTube highlights of his best plays because the NFL doesn’t allow you to embed stuff from YouTube, so I can only include stuff from Twitter.
But Emmanuel Acho breaks it down really nicely here in this video:
Justin Fields has it all, man.
He has awareness in the pocket, he can evade pressure, he can extend plays, he can throw on the run, and his burst of speed is ridiculous–I honestly think he’s gotten faster from last year to this year.
I’ve been saying this for a while now: he’s Lamar Jackson with a better arm. He’s not quite as fast as Lamar Jackson but he’s fast enough. He ran for 178 yards in a game.
Fields’ talent level is through the roof. It’s off the charts. We have never seen this combination of running ability and arm talent.
Worst-case scenario, he becomes Kyler Murray. But he’s way bigger than Kyler Murray, and I think he’s faster, too.
He has a better arm than Lamar.
The sky is the limit for Fields. It really is.
The Bears did a great job in getting him Chase Claypool. In today’s NFL, you can slightly overpay for weapons and it’s perfectly acceptable. You can never have enough weapons.
But by no means should the Bears be satisfied with Claypool and Darnell Mooney. I think they should go after an elite receiver in the draft, probably Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who Fields played with for one season at Ohio State in 2020. The Bears, because they gutted their defense and now can’t stop anybody, will lose a lot of games and probably end up with a top-10 draft pick.
I already know they’re going to draft defense in the first round because this is the Bears, but they need to break their self-destructive Bears Tendencies and go all-in on offense. Just get an abundance of weapons for Fields.
Be like the Dolphins: put your young quarterback in the very best possible position to succeed. The Dolphins went out and got Tyreek Hill for Tua, and that’s after spending a top-6 draft pick on Jaylen Waddle. The Dolphins have weapons for days, and look at that: they’re 6-3 right now. They would be even better if Tua didn’t have to miss games with that scary concussion.
The NFL today is a weapons league.
Aaron Rodgers looks washed as fuck without Davante Adams.
All the respect to Geno Smith, he’s been incredible this year, but he’s been put in a great position to succeed with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Noah Fant to throw to. He would not be as good as he’s been without such great weapons. And this is not a knock on Geno, the NFL is just a weapons league. No QB can do it all for his team.
The Eagles got AJ Brown for Jalen Hurts and look at the leap he’s taken this year. He’s an MVP candidate.
If the Bears get Smith-Njigba to add to Claypool and Mooney, the Bears will finally have a legitimate offense for the first time in like 80 years.
Just go for JSN in round one and then spend the rest of your picks on defense. And spend all of your free agency money on defense, too.
But you are not getting a quality wide receiver in free agency. The only way you obtain those is from the draft or by trading for them. If you trade for one, though, you’re going to have to pay him like $25-30 million a year. The Chiefs had to pay Tyreek a king’s ransom, as did the Raiders with Davante. AJ Brown is making, I believe, $22 million a year.
Plus, you’re going to have to cough up multiple first round picks to get a truly top-flight receiver in the first place.
So the draft is really the way to go. There are so many good receivers in college football these days; there’s always like 2-3 absolute studs in each draft class. But you have to draft them early. That’s the thing now: there is such a high premium on receivers that you’re not getting one unless you’re in the top-10 picks. Justin Jefferson fell to the Vikings at 18 back in 2020, and that is not happening again. The league is not sleeping on these receivers anymore.
Personally, I like JSN the most out of the three big names–him, Quentin Johnston of TCU and then Jordan Addison out of USC. I like them in that order, actually. Addison has been kind of a disappointment this year after winning the Biletnikoff last year. He hasn’t been bad, but I thought his stats would just be eye-popping this year with Caleb Williams as his QB (no disrespect to Kenny Pickett, though). Plus he’s little: he’s listed at 6’0″, 175lbs. That’s really small, and the Bears already have a small guy in Mooney.
Smith-Njigba is listed at 6’0″ and 197lbs, in contrast.
And then you have Johnston from TCU who is 6’4″ and 194lbs. I like him a lot, but the Bears already have a big body receiver in Chase Claypool.
JSN would really be the best fit for the Bears at wide receiver.
They need to get him in the draft. Forget about the offensive line. The Bears’ offensive line isn’t that bad. Notice how much better it looks now that Fields isn’t taking so many sacks.
Most of the sacks Fields was taking were kind of his fault for being hesitant to throw the ball and holding on to it too long. He was only sacked twice against Miami. I mean, yeah, he’s been sacked the most in the league at 33 times already this year, and I do think the Bears need one more good, solid offensive lineman, but I feel like they really could have a golden opportunity to get Fields an elite receiver prospect that he played with in college.
That’s all the rage these days, isn’t it? Waddle and Tua, Chase and Burrow, DeVonta Smith and Hurts.
If the Bears have the chance, they have to get JSN. Get your QB some weapons and then worry about the defense later.
Get the weapons in place, and Fields will take the Chicago Bears places they’ve never been before.
The dude is a special talent. The Bears have finally found a quarterback after like 80 years of searching for one.
Do not screw it up by reverting to your typical Bears ways and neglecting offense.
Plus, as it stands right now, the Bears have the 9th pick in the draft and the Packers have the 10th pick. If this were to somehow hold until draft day (obviously wildly unlikely but let’s just assume the Packers continue to suck and are picking somewhere slightly behind where the Bears pick), then the Bears would have the ability to not only draft their wide receiver of the future, but deprive the Packers of theirs.
You know the Packers are desperate for a wide receiver. It’s so bad there right now they might actually mess around and pick a receiver in the first round for the first time in like 45 years or whatever it is.
Imagine if the Bears snipe JSN away from the Packers the one year the Packers were actually going to take a receiver. And then JSN tortures the Packers for the next 10 years as a member of the Bears catching touchdowns from Justin Fields.
Bears front office: please don’t Bears this up.
You have a special talent at quarterback. Empower him.
Fade the Public 