Justin Fields hasn’t had a great start to the 2022 season. It’s okay to say so. Through two games, he has only 191 yards passing, two touchdowns, two interceptions, and has barely completed 53% of his passes. His game up in Green Bay was more of the same worrying trend people saw last year. He looked tentative in the pocket and didn’t show the kind of field vision he needs to attack top NFL defenses. Yes, indeed, his protection isn’t always good, and his receiving corps is below average.
That doesn’t discount the fact that he missed many opportunities against the Packers. They played the Trubisky defense against him, and it worked perfectly. In other words, they kept him in the pocket and forced him to play quarterback. Every decent opponent the Chicago Bears have faced since last year has done the same thing against him. It almost always works. That said, it isn’t time to abandon ship on Fields. Everybody knew going in this would likely be a rollercoaster. The young QB was never going to come out firing.
That said, some people are asking. When should the conversation start? Believe it or not, Josh Allen offers an excellent timeline for this.
Justin Fields deserves a few more weeks to get going.
Allen was nowhere close to the superstar he is today. He had a rough rookie season with the Buffalo Bills in 2018. Many people forget that he also looked bad early in 2019. He threw for 903 yards, three touchdowns, and six interceptions through the first four games. That worked out to a 69.6 passer rating. It wasn’t until October 6th that he finally started to gain some confidence, throwing seven touchdowns to just one interception over the next four games.
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The translation is clear. Justin Fields should start to show at least some improvement by mid-October. He’ll have played a solid month in this new offense, getting a chance to grow comfortable with Luke Getsy as a play caller. He’ll also play two far more accommodating defenses (on paper) in the Houston Texans and New York Giants. That should help him to build some confidence.
If Fields still looks like the player he’s been for the past two weeks by Halloween, then it will be time for everybody to have that dreaded conversation. Maybe quarterback should get bumped up the priority list for the 2023 off-season.
I watched that entire Bills video where Allen was supposedly bad, yet even then he looked immeasurably better than Fields ever has so far. When did Josh Allen ever throw for only 70 yards in an NFL game? What QB since Tim Tebow has been that bad?
Sean Payton…come home please…
First I want to point out that I was a huge fan of Josh Allen’s when he was in college, especially after watching him in that bowl game, before the combine. Now that I have that out of the way, I have to point out what should be obvious – At the same point in his career, Josh Allen had a better OL in pass protection, and superior WRs to throw to. Why? Because the Bills had a better organization, with a better plan, designed around their new franchise QB. It’s easy to forget Poles and Eberflus inherited a train-wreck.… Read more »
It’s not that complicated. Fields has until the end of the year. If he isn’t getting things done then you have to draft another QB in the Spring.
And these Offenses today are much simpler, college style Offenses. A QB shouldn’t need more than 2 yrs.
Evaluations of all NFL players is an ongoing process. But I am sue the coaches are evaluating what Fields is doing in relation to his protection and the weapons he does have. We still dont have a solid line. Patric isnt playing center and Jenkins is learning a new position in a trial by fire. Both are rotating to get both a chance to accomplish learning/building up strength. We also dont have all the receivers healthy. Toss in that while the offensive scheme is a good choice its harder to learn, again the team is going through a trial by… Read more »