2021 NFL Draft: Justin Fields concerns mounting

2021 NFL Draft: Justin Fields concerns mounting.

There is no doubt that Justin Fields has the tools to be a tremendous quarterback at the NFL level. He’s considered one of the best players in the 2021 NFL Draft class for a variety of reasons.

Fields has proven himself to be an accurate passer with a big arm who is equally dangerous as a runner.

Over the course of the last three games, Fields has not been nearly as impressive as anyone had become accustomed to.

No prospect is perfect. Even Trevor Lawrence has some duds on his record. But Fields’ issues do raise questions about whether or not he should be as high as the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Earlier in the season, Fields was looking like a top pick candidate.

Through three games, he had as many touchdown passes as he did incompletions. There is no question that Fields has upside and talent, but through nearly three quarters of the Big Ten Championship game against Northwestern, he’s 9-of-23 passing with a pair of interceptions.

To be fair to Fields, he doesn’t have his top target Chris Olave, but the way he has looked in this game has been more the cause for concern rather than just the fact that he has a young receiver group out there without its top guy.

For what it’s worth (which is a lot), Brugler has had Zach Wilson ahead of Fields for a good amount of time which makes you wonder — what has he been hearing from NFL teams about both Wilson and Fields in addition to what he’s seeing himself?

Part of the reason why Fields has such a low interception total is what Brugler alludes to in his tweet — he takes plenty of unnecessary sacks when his first read is not available. We’ve seen a number of very successful college quarterbacks who excel doing a lot of similar things to Fields tank in the NFL because they can’t sense pressure or make reads with the defense playing efficient and fast.

We saw this first when Ohio State struggled badly against Indiana and Fields threw three interceptions.

Going back to Ohio State’s loss last season against Clemson, Fields has seven interceptions in his last seven games overall with multiple interceptions against Clemson’s defense, Indiana’s defense, and now Northwestern’s defense.

There have been more than just flashes in between, but the concerns are certainly mounting for Fields as far as whether or not he should be considered for the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Will teams fall in love with the talent and potential? No question. Will they bite in the top 10? That is, at the very least, up for debate.