The second-year quarterback is thriving in an environment where we didn’t think he could. It’s time for a little accountability.
TO: Ryan Poles, Matt Eberflus
FROM: Conor Orr, Sports Illustrated
SUBJECT: My bad
Hello gentlemen,
In case my email automatically got filtered into a spam folder called “ignore this person who doesn’t understand football” I’ve decided to reprint it here. Hello, I’m the guy who wrote this offseason about how Justin Fields should consider demanding trade.
I would like you to know that I am aware I was wrong.
Colts owner Jim Irsay said a lot of stuff one might consider distant from reality during Jeff Saturday’s introductory press conference last week, but he did ask a reporter rhetorically whether his or her editor would ever fire them for getting something wrong, and it got me thinking. While I would guess my wonderful bosses wouldn’t kick me to the curb for missing on something like this (we get paid at the end of the month, so I’ll keep you posted), it’s worth our time to talk about accountability in modern media and being able to say I was wrong.
So, in the moments following Week 10’s 31–30 loss to the Lions, which came down to a missed extra point, I’m prepared to take my medicine. Fields, as you probably know, rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns, along with his 167 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air. Last week, he scored four total touchdowns—three passing, one rushing—amassing more than 300 yards of total offense, including an NFL record for rushing yards by a QB in a regular-season game.
Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports
Knowing during his rookie season that Fields had the potential for what he has become in 2022, but watching it get squandered irresponsibly under the franchise’s previous regime, propelled me toward a soap box. The shedding of veterans such as Khalil Mack got me up on the thing and the failure to add weapons around him during the offseason put the megaphone in my hand. This was a strange time in the league, if you can remember. Urban Meyer nearly firebombed Trevor Lawrence’s career. Tua Tagovailoa was hung out to dry by the Dolphins before the hiring of Mike McDaniel. Folks were playing Monopoly with talented young people and then leaving them to carry around the “bust” label like a scarlet letter without accepting some of the blame.
Here’s what I didn’t see coming:
• Perhaps letting go of Allen Robinson, who has a career low yards per target with the Rams, was a net positive. Not that Robinson is a bad player now, but not spending irresponsibly at the top of the receiver market, and instead forcing some of your younger players to develop, was a better play than hanging on to the remaining prime of a receiver. So, too, was adding Chase Claypool and getting a feel for how to use him before committing significant cap dollars.
• Perhaps you saw the talent you had on the offensive line that we didn’t see. While PFF is not a perfect measure for offensive line talent, Teven Jenkins, when kicked inside to guard, is playing just as good, if not better, than James Daniels.
• Perhaps you knew that you could get a starting left tackle in the fifth round of the draft. Braxton Jones, my goodness, is talented. He is also perfectly suited for this beautiful, maddening rushing offense. You almost certainly knew that Chris Morgan and Austin King, the offensive line coaches, were going to maximize the unit. Larry Borom and Sam Mustipher have both gotten better.
I didn’t see some of the wild ways in which you could spring Fields out of the backfield, and to be fair, neither did anyone in the NFL. Fields will end up starting next season as one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football. The little sneak route from Cole Kmet that was attached to the zone read which sprang Fields for a 67-yard touchdown against the Lions on Sunday was an absolute chef’s kiss. In Week 8 against the Cowboys, some of the ways in which you invited Micah Parsons upfield only to smash him blind side with a pulling tight end or tackle, creating massive gaps to run through, were worthy of a slow-motion-highlight Oscar.
Back to accountability for a second: What happens when we get something wrong? Well, nothing, really. We get a few people using the clown emoji on Twitter, but Twitter is going away at some point because of a similar inability to admit fault and recognize a blind spot in awareness. Thankfully, my pieces worthy of Old Takes Exposed caused a little less societal harm. I’ll do my best to make this a walk of shame.
The important thing is that football columnists learn from the experience. Trimming the fat on a roster doesn’t have to mean the team is tanking. Not spending money doesn’t have to mean alienating a quarterback. Coaches and GMs deserve a longer runway to prove that they have everyone’s best interest in mind (at least a little longer than 45 minutes into their first offseason).
Anyway, you’re probably busy getting ready for the Falcons next week. But you’re doing so in an entirely different space than the one I’d envisioned. Sure, the team is 3–7. But Fields is a game plan focal point, not something that is being hidden, abused or squandered. He is appointment viewing. He is someone we can talk about in a future tense without introducing some level of skepticism. From all of us who worried he might not be in the environment you built around him, all we can say is thanks.
Cheers,
Conor
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