How do I put this...
I see Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace here a VERY long time, and I see CCS dick ripping in the future as both of them win MUTLIPLE rings with our new quarterback.
I know its damned stupid, but barring injury, I see a gold jacket in the kid's future. Extreme projection, but I'll quote something Dan Bernstein said on the radio today about Fields:
"You know it when you see it, and Justin Fields has it."
If I had to distill it to a single word, it would be "composure".
See, every year scouts and fans fall in love with the guy with the best arm, the best combine, the best pedigree, etc..
And to me, none of those things make a QB "special" - those are tools they have in their toolbox, but they aren't what separates good from great.
We all can agree Drew Brees and Tom Brady are great. Well, both had knocks on their arm coming out of college, and the league has burned through likely at least 200 QBs who all had better arms than these two but never managed to make it during the time of each's career.
It's the cerebral part of the game that separates good from great. And that is why I am predicting greatness from Fields - he HAS it.
More than any of the touchdown passes, the play that really showed this to me was when he used the run while running to his right to manipulate a defender to leave his man to chase Fields, and then right before the LOS Fields launches one over the defender to his open man. He WILLED that man open by having the defender in the palm of his hand. It was just so....intentional.... THAT is how I know he is going to be great, because the great ones DO that sort of thing, while lesser QBs may scramble and run for their life, and may even make the play based on their athleticism... but after the play, they are thinking "Thank God that opened up" instead of "Got them to do exactly what I wanted". And it doesn't nearly look as smooth or in command.
Fields' mental processing and mental toughness is off the charts.
None of the other QBs in my lifetime were mentally tough enough to start in the NFL, let alone be great. If you need fans to jump to your defense and beg other fans to not be critical for fear of said criticism making that QB worse (Take your pick - Rex Grossman, Cade McNown, Jay Cutler, Mitch Trubisky), then you ain't it as a franchise QB.
You know it when you see it. I saw it on Saturday. There will be growing pains. He is a rookie after all.
But I am starting the bus for Canton, and fuck anyone who rips that or tries to tell me otherwise - I know what I saw...
