It seems to be the talk of the 2021 NFL draft. Where will Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields go? It sure looks like Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson are locked in at No.’s 1 and 2 with the Jaguars and Jets respectively, but then it’s anyone’s guess.
The San Francisco 49ers are right there at No. 3 after trading up to get in position to presumably pick a quarterback, but the jury is out on whether it will be Fields or North Dakota Stats’s Trey Lance. We may be homers, but we have a hard time believing the OSU quarterback hasn’t done enough to be a top-three signal-caller in this year’s crop, but I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.
Speaking of which, there’s a draft site and analyst we love to follow as a part of the USA TODAY family here, Luke Easterling and Draft Wire. He has an interesting scenario that he thinks he believes is completely plausible, and it involves a team jumping up to select Fields.
So what team is it, and where does he think the former Heisman finalist will go?
NEXT … A suitor for Justin Fields
Justin Fields to the New England Patriots at No. 4 (via trade)
What Easterling Says
“Once the 49ers traded up to No. 3, this became the hottest spot in potential trade-up talks. If the Falcons don’t want a quarterback for themselves (Matt Ryan’s exorbitant cap number through 2022 alone could be enough to cause this), and they can live with passing on someone like Florida tight end Kyle Pitts, they could easily offer this pick up to the highest bidder.
If that happens, there should be no shortage of suitors. The Broncos at No. 9 would make sense, but the Falcons could easily get multiple future first-round picks in a deal with the Patriots, who are currently picking 15th. There might not be a huge difference in prospect value at the Falcons’ biggest positions of need between the No. 9 and No. 15 picks, so they could get better value and more compensation by making a deal with the Pats.
Bill Belichick has been aggressive in free agency, so why not do it here? He’s also probably not interested in a longer-term project like Lance, instead opting for the pro-ready Fields. Getting the second-best quarterback in this class as the fourth one off the board would be well worth the cost of moving up.”
NEXT … What We Say
Justin Fields to the 49ers at No. 3
What We Say
I don’t know how many times I can say this, but I find it hard to believe that Justin Fields’ skills and body of work don’t warrant him being selected over Trey Lance. Maybe there’s a shiny diamond in the rough coming out of North Dakota, but the OSU quarterback feels like more of a sure thing. Sometimes the NFL types can overanalyze and get too cute in thinking they’ve found something nobody else has, and that feels like the case here. Frankly, it’s hard to believe Zach Wilson is the better prospect too.
But we could be wrong. It can be awfully difficult to project what a guy’s going to do at the next level because of the big jump in talent, culture, and lifestyle. Fields seems to have it all together, and I for one will be shocked if he doesn’t become the face of a franchise in the NFL. But again, I’ve been wrong before.
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