Ohio State football: More criticism of Justin Fields

The Ohio State football player seems to get more scrutiny than everyone else in the Draft for unknown reasons.

Here we go again. I wrote an article last week discussing the misinformation campaign against Justin Fields (read that here). I predicted we had not seen the last of the attacks on him and there would be another before the Draft. I really do not like saying I told you so, but…

Cam Marino of Falcons Wire posted on social media the Falcons have backed away from Fields because of questions about his maturity. He has maintained Atlanta preferred him to Trey Lance of North Dakota State, but recently that has completely changed.

I said this before, I’ve not seen an attack like this on one particular player since Dan Marino in 1983. There have been reports questioning Fields’ character, work ethic, criticism of his throwing mechanics, and ability to read a defense. Now, it’s his maturity.

I’ve even seen Fields accused of possessing a large amount of hubris. I don’t recall this criticism for Cam Newton or Baker Mayfield before they were drafted. Those two are pretty much the hubris poster boys (I’m a Browns fan, so I can say whatever I please about Mayfield).

I know there were some rumblings about the maturity of Dwayne Haskins two years ago. But, the difference here is Haskins spent his entire college career with the Ohio State football program, while Fields transferred from Georgia.

If there were issues with his character, work habits, etc. I think something would have been said when he decided to leave the Bulldogs’ program. There are always the usual sour grapes comments when a guy decides a certain school is not for him. I did some research and can not find a single article addressing these issues when speculation began about a possible transfer.

Somebody out there wants Justin Fields to fall in the draft. Are the Falcons putting out the latest info as a smokescreen because they’re afraid he will not be available when they pick at number four? Did the other accusations come from teams hoping he’ll fall into the middle or later part of the first round?

Is it coming from a team who wants to trade into the lower half of the top ten and hope he slides to them? It could be any or all of those. There is no question all of this is coming from within the league; these are not media-generated stories.

I really believe all of this is happening because some team thinks Fields is going to be a great player and are desperate to have him. In the end, I’m more concerned with who drafts him rather than when he gets picked. But, all of this is grossly unfair to him as a person.

Let’s hope this claim about his maturity is the last of the attacks on him before the first round of the Draft begins Thursday night.