It seems as though the only people who want to dispel the selection of Justin Fields point to the Ohio State quarterback issue. When was the last Ohio State quarterback to have success in the NFL? However, that is such flawed logic it almost has to be laughed off before taken seriously. Okay, now let’s dispel this pretty easily.
First, you should treat every person as their own individual, that is pretty obvious. Once you start there, you see pretty stark differences.
So, let’s list out the Ohio State quarterbacks that have been busts in the NFL that have some concerns: Cardale Jones, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Troy Smith, Terrelle Pryor, and Dwayne Haskins.
Here are the differences:
5. Recruiting
Recruiting is not everything, but there is a correlation to the top players in high school finding a way to get into the NFL. Beyond that, we are going to use this as a tool to measure the difference between these quarterbacks.
Cardale Jones was a three-star recruit according to 24/7. His making it as far as he did as a quarterback may have been impressive. Barrett, Troy Smith, and Dwayne Haskins were all 4-star recruits.
Justin Fields, Terrelle Pryor, and Braxton Miller were the only three to earn 5-star recruits. Miller and Pryor did because they were so athletic that they made the NFL at wide receiver. In the case of Pryor, he actually made 10 starts in the NFL at quarterback. His biggest issue was off of the field issues, and he was suspended for his last season at Ohio State causing him to go into the supplemental draft. That is a bit different than what happened with Justin Fields.
Even Miller was a 5-star but was graded 0.9847 according to 24/7 sports. Terrelle Pryor was 0.9997 which is special, but Fields was rated 0.9998 coming out of high school. That means that none of these players were even graded as high as Fields coming out of high school.