Just opening this thread for the first time today. I don't spend a crazy amount of time on football, but enough to keep relatively informed. The biggest knock on Justin Fields has been the fact that he holds onto the ball for too long. You could make the argument that Ohio State has a much more vertical game than just about everyone, and those plays take time develop. Regardless though of how long a play takes, quaterbacks need to have self-awareness and know when to throw the ball away. Fields struggles with that. Here are the other top rated quarterbacks and how they compare with sacks.
Sacks Per Game
Trey Lance, NDSU, 0.69 (2019 stats)
Zach Wilson, BYU, 0.92
Mac Jones, Alabama, 1.00
Trevor Lawrence, Clemson, 1.28
Justin Fields, Ohio State, 2.63 (2.36 if you take the stats from 2019 & 2020)
You could legitimately argue that Lance and Wilson didn't face a whole lot of pressure from defensive fronts. I know Wilson is a decent scrambler and he can connect with a very small window. Haven't seen Trey Lance other than some highlights, but he looks promising. Mac Jones has superstar receivers, as well as two All-American lineman to protect him. But, it's hard to ignore the fact that Jones has the highest rated passer efficiency rating in FBS history. 77% completion ratings and a more than 10-1 TD-INT ratio is ridiculous. Alabama throws a boatload of screen passes, so those numbers are probably inflated a bit. Yards after the catch for Bama was off the charts... Trevor Lawrence has a much lower sack rate, and those two are in very comparable situations, IMO. Fields has a cannon, no question. And he is already aware of this glaring weakness, if he can correct that, he could easily be worthy of being a top 5 pick.
FWIW, here are the numbers for the prior two quarterbacks at OSU.
Sacks Per Game
Dwayne Haskins, 1.43
JT Barrett, 1.77
www.cbssports.com
