New York Giants free company: What to love, not like, about QB Justin Fields

The New York Giants are on the lookout for a brand new quarterback. Each Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito are free brokers (the latter is an unique rights free agent). GM Joe Schoen might look so as to add a number of free-agent quarterbacks, and few possess an affordable upside like Justin Fields.

I used to be not a giant Fields fan when he got here out of Ohio State in 2021. His bodily traits are tantalizing, and he has a cannon, however, much like Daniel Jones, his means to alter constantly the pacing and contact of his passes appears unnatural. Like Jones, accuracy points and an absence of anticipatory passing are nonetheless important query marks for Justin Fields.

Nonetheless, Fields is simply 25 years previous. He’ll value the Giants little on the cap: Spotrac.com has his market worth at $8.9 million common annual worth — a shot on Fields at that worth because the No. 2 quarterback is an fascinating choice.

Loads of former first-round picks have discovered comfy houses away from the groups that chosen them: Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold are examples. Can Fields grow to be one more? I stay skeptical however intrigued by his potential. I belief his upside greater than that of Zach Wilson and Mac Jones, albeit the latter might provide low-upside stability.

Fields began the primary six video games for the Pittsburgh Steelers whereas Russell Wilson was ailing from a calf harm. Fields led Pittsburgh to a 4-2 file earlier than head coach Mike Tomlin made a considerably controversial choice to bench Fields for Wilson. The offense did seemingly play higher with Wilson because the sign caller.

Fields completed the season with 1,106 passing yards, 5 passing touchdowns, one interception, a Massive Time Throw Price of three.4%, and a Turnover Worthy Price of two.8%. Fields was most harmful together with his legs; he rushed for 289 yards and 5 touchdowns with six fumbles. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith appeared to benefit from the physicality and mobility of the younger quarterback. We’ll begin there.

Fields’ legs

Offensive coordinators can recreation plan round Fields’ elusiveness and his harmful dashing upside. His toughness — mixed together with his 6-foot-3, 230-pound body — permits him to punish defenders. The protection have to be cognizant of his location always for his dashing means can manifest on quarterback scrambles, like we see within the play above and under:

However designed quarterback runs are much more thrilling for a artistic offensive coordinator. We’ve seen Brian Daboll design stable performs for Daniel Jones as a rusher, however Fields might take that to a different degree:

Smith designed a gorgeous fake-pitch G-Lead for Fields within the purple zone in opposition to the Las Vegas Raiders. His means to tuck it and run forces the protection to remain disciplined with their run assignments, resulting in extra advantageous numbers on the other facet, lest the protection will get grasping and Fields makes them pay together with his pace.

Inside runs like QB-Energy are additionally on the desk with a sign caller like Fields. He picked up eight yards on this second-and-five run in opposition to the Indianapolis Colts. Fields’ presence presents the offense a way more artistic and diversified dashing assault. He’s additionally a real risk as a zone learn choice:

Fields sealed a victory in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals on this zone-read keeper late within the fourth quarter. His risk as a runner can virtually go unspoken; it’s so self-evident, however how is he as a passer?

Velocity

Fields can thread the needle over the center of the sphere.

Fields tightly delivers a line drive to Van Jefferson (11) in opposition to the Dallas Cowboys’ zone protection. He waits for Pat Freiermuth (88) to get Eric Kendricks (50) to step to the proper earlier than squeezing the cross into Jefferson on a line. Fields will get good torque on his passes by means of his decrease physique and up till the purpose of launch; this enables him to fireside this soccer out of his hand in such a fashion.

Fields does a great job studying the protection and firing this soccer into his fast curl on the numbers. The Colts are in a Cowl-2 protection, and the boundary center hook cut up the hash and the numbers; Fields identified this and threw with anticipation proper earlier than Calvin Austin III (19) circled. Fields ‘ wonderful timing and rhythm allowed Pittsburgh to choose up this primary down on third-and-nine.

Fields’ fastball has loads of juice, and he can ship catchable passes from the far-hash, albeit I might argue his ball placement will not be constantly correct. Nonetheless, we see him ship a gorgeous back-shoulder far-hash cross to Jefferson that’s dropped.

Flashes of accuracy

If a coach like Daboll can get a quarterback like Fields to constantly throw with accuracy, then the juice would undoubtedly be well worth the squeeze for the Giants to pursue Fields at a reduction.

Fields precisely discovered Darnell Washington (80) on this boundary again shoulder. The defensive leverage was inside and Fields rapidly observed the area towards the sideline. The ball was positioned completely for Washington to safe the six factors.

Fields took one step off the snap and fired a dart to Austin III, who defeated the mushy inside lean of the cornerback. To be secure, Fields put the ball outdoors and away from the defender, permitting Austin III to effortlessly safe it earlier than going out of bounds.

We see Fields once more efficiently assault outdoors the numbers off a well-run route by George Pickens (14). It’s one other far-hash rip to the receiver’s outdoors shoulder that was positioned effectively by the quarterback. Fields doesn’t essentially showcase contact over the center of the sphere, however he additionally had a couple of spectacular throws with good total accuracy between the numbers.

Fields waited simply lengthy sufficient for his receiver to get upfield and away from the beneath zone defender earlier than throwing the ball low, which hit the receiver within the palms and was finally dropped. There’s no room in any respect for Fields, however he supplied a catchable cross.

Right here’s good processing and consciousness from Fields, who noticed the protection and understood the mismatch on third-and-fourteen. The Chargers dropped Tuli Tuipulotu (45) into protection beneath Austin III, and Fields led the receiver upfield and away from the protection on the slant. Fields rapidly recognized this on the line of scrimmage, leading to an enormous conversion for the offense.

Improvisor/unorthodox success

Fields can improvise and make performs outdoors of construction.

Fields is ready to really feel the crumbling pocket round him. He stepped up and stayed behind the road of scrimmage earlier than getting sq. to his goal and throwing throughout his physique for the completion. This is a wonderful spotlight of Fields’ means to create and prolong performs. As we’ll see a bit later, his means to ship correct passes on the transfer is inconsistent, however he does flash brightly.

It is a comparable play to the one above, however Fields doesn’t must step up and into the pocket; as a substitute, simply discover the B-Hole that was primarily pushed proper into the pocket. He then saved his eyes downfield to find Pickens for an enormous acquire. The flexibility to remain conscious and preserve his eyes downfield exhibits maturity. Under is one other adjustment off-script to Pickens that went for a giant acquire.

Then there’s this play that I appreciated. It’s delicate, however Fields apparently ripped a web page out of Patrick Mahomes’ playbook.

When you have a look at the nonetheless body, Fields’ hips, toes, eyes, and physique are all oriented on Scotty Miller’s (13) in route beneath Pickens’ bender. The defender in battle learn Fields and jumped beneath Miller, however Fields rapidly adjusted his throwing movement to finish the cross to Pickens for a primary down.

Negatives

Fields lacks any consistency as an correct passer. Despite the fact that he has a giant arm, he underthrows too many passes, or sails them out of bounds. He accomplished this 31-yard cross under, however the throw pressured the receiver to flatten his route, virtually leading to a cross defended or an interception:

The cross was nonetheless full, however a greater throw would have resulted in a landing. Giants followers perceive the significance of ball placement and maximizing yards after the catch. Fields struggles to showcase this means as a deep passer.

Fields underthrew this deep cross to Pickens off play-action and was reckless with the throw in opposition to this Tampa-2 protection. He threw proper to the deep half security to the sphere facet. A reckless nature is one thing else that plagues Fields. Generally, he makes an attempt to do an excessive amount of, as we see under on this sack that knocked Pittsburgh out of subject objective vary on third down.

Right here’s an interception Fields threw to an beneath zone defender that was known as again due to a roughing the passer penalty:

For a cellular quarterback, Fields misses some gimme throws when he’s on the transfer:

Listed here are another inaccurate throws; some have been accomplished however made the play extra sophisticated than it needed to be:

Remaining ideas

I’m open to signing Fields to an inexpensive deal as a quantity two quarterback or probably even a developmental quantity three; I don’t need Fields to be the primary choice for the Giants heading into coaching camp. If Schoen pours property into his quarterback room, a veteran, Fields, and probably a rookie quarterback with a top-50 choice may very well be a path to repair this long-standing difficulty.

Fields is way from good, and there’s nonetheless loads of room for progress and growth, however I might roll the cube — at value — on his tolls and upside. There are worse choices on the market. Though unlikely, Fields could also be the most suitable choice to strike lightning in a bottle with a former first-round quarterback “bust.” I’m not less than keen to see if that’s attainable, albeit I’m not assured in its success.