The Justin Fields Reality: “I don’t think I played good enough”
“I don’t think I played good enough if I’m being real with you,” Fields said. “If I’m being real with myself, if I did play well enough, I don’t think there would be any sort of (question) who should be playing, who should not.”
Poignant words from a young man trying to figure out his place.
And If it helps, I can’t figure it out either.
Because he is right. The Steelers have a winning record and a Super Bowl-level defense. The issue, as it has been the past few years, is the offense.
Fields is unbelievably talented. When he played at OSU, I thought his arm was next-level good, and then all of a sudden, he was one of the fastest players in the NFL. I had no idea that he could run like he does.
But he can’t hold an NFL job.
This was here for the taking! Russ hurt, young guy, but something must not be there behind the scenes.
I'm a big fan of yards per play as a statistic, and to me, yards per play is a quarterback stat. The very best Quarterbacks can either adjust the play into something worthwhile or make something out of nothing.
The Steelers are averaging a paltry 4.8 yards per play.
Not a great sign for my QB belief.
What's killing them is the sack percentage, yards per attempt, and success percentage. He's not getting rid of the ball; when he does, it's not down the field and not super accurate.
Not great, Bob.
Now, what would I do if I were in the Steelers' front office? I'm riding and dying with Fields. The talent is there in spurts, and very few guys can make plays like this.
I'm almost positive Russ will give you better immediate results. However, you are the Steelers, and the opportunity to have a quarterback with Fields's talent will not happen for a while. That's the downside of being good.
The real question is the locker room. Do they think he has the juice or not? These are grown men who have been around the game for a long time. They know if someone has it or not. If Fields isn't the guy, they know it and have made their opinion known. Russell Wilson, at the base level, has a foundation of success. These guys don't care about the future; they care about today.
That's the unquantifiable element of these situations. As a watcher from my couch, it's easy to say to keep going with his potential.
But potential isn’t for real.
And while he could be, maybe Fields isn't for real either.