The poor performances against Indiana and the dreadful performance against Northwestern where OSU has a huge talent advantage are especially concerning. He did put up big numbers against Clemson but the Clemson secondary was terrible in that game.
The big question I've heard on Fields is on his ability to process data quickly and go through his progressions. Supposedly one of the NFL teams reviewed all his 200+ pass attempts and Fields threw to his primary target on all but 7 attempts.
Personally I find his sack numbers interesting. In 2020, 21 sacks in 8 games including 5 sacks by Indiana. In 2019, 31 sacks in 14 games but 5 each in the two games against Wisconsin and 4 in the Clemson game. That's a lot of sacks for a QB whose athleticism and mobility are so hyped.
As a Bama fan, Manzel scared me. Watson scared me. Even with the dreadful Oklahoma defense, Kyler Murray scared me a bit. Fields didn't scare me.
Nothing for nothing but Indiana had the 5th ranked defense in the country and Northwestern was the #1 ranked defense. Yes he played poorly against them but it is not like it was against bums.
According to whom? I'd suggest those B10 defensives were overrated in the stats because they faced weak B10 offenses. That supposed #1 Northwestern defense allowed Sermon to rush for 331 yards.
Northwestern did beat a pretty poor Auburn team that played without their top RB. But Bo Nix
put up reasonably good numbers against Northwestern while Fields numbers against NW were dreadful.
Nix 25/42 292 1 TD 0 INT 125.8 Rtg
Fields 12/27 114 0 TD 2 INT 65.1 Rtg
Even if Northwestern's defense was actually the #1 defense, Fields performance was dreadful in this era which heavily favors the offense. If Fields performance drops off so much against better college defenses, how is he going to perform against NFL professional defenses? Fields won't have the huge talent advantage in the NFL that he does at OSU.
According to Football Outsiders. it is not an exact science but the stats back up that both defenses are pretty good. It is fair to critique Fields' game but dude had two solid years in a major conference, something that cannot be said about Wilson, Lance or Jones.
I didn't follow college football. It seems the consensus out there is that Fields has a much higher ceiling than Mac Jones as an NFL quarterback. While Mac Jones had superior stats last year, at least from an efficiency POV, many (including Pats fans on Pats Pulpit Blog) dismiss this on account of Jones having superior receivers and other personnel.
I don't know. I watch the tape of both of them. They both look pretty darn good. Jones looks like a prototypical pocket quarterback, who seems pretty comfortable in the pocket, seems to be able to maneuver around there, and seems to be able to process multiple reads very quickly. Fields obviously is more athletic, and stronger.
I think the bias against Jones is more to do with the direction that the NFL seems to be headed, where the up and coming star QBs tend to be able to scramble and make plays when the set play breaks down, or where all the targets are covered. Mahomes, Watson (?), Jackson, Murray, even Allen. These types of QBs are more exciting. Are they more successful? Besides Mahomes, I'm not so sure, and even he had his reckoning with Mr. Brady both times in the playoffs.
I think if a team is properly constructed (i.e., good offensive line protection, creative play calling, decent receivers), there will always be a place for a QB like Jones to succeed in the NFL. I think his downside is Jarred Goff, and frankly I would not be surprised to see him surpass Goff pretty quickly. I think Jones is a much quicker decision maker. And has a better arm.
Would not surprise me if Jones had as good an NFL career as Fields. Or even better. The fact that he will be playing on for a better organization will be an advantage for him.
How good is the Pats offensive line expected to be this season, or do we have to wait for the draft to figure that out? I didn't follow them much last season.
Who is more motivated to beat Tom Brady than Bill Belichick?