Pros and cons of Seattle Seahawks adding Justin Fields
By Lee Vowell
Cons of Seahawks trading for Justin Fields
There seems to be a simple fact: Ohio State quarterbacks don’t develop into good NFL quarterbacks. Maybe OSU wins games because they have a superior roster in a conference where a bunch of teams will never be as good so high school players don’t want to go to the other school in droves. Unlike the SEC where most of the teams can produce players that are NFL teams, the Big 10 only has a handful of schools that do that. Therefore, quarterbacks for Ohio State are playing against inferior talent for most of their college careers and their statistics end up looking better than the player actually is.
Or maybe that’s just me being oversimplified? But how many OSU quarterbacks can you actually say have been very good in the NFL recently? It’s possible that C.J. Stroud could change this narrative beginning in 2023, but until now the jury is still out on how good OSU QBs can be.
Fields can run and we know that. But can he be a consistently accurate passer? That is yet to be determined and as a quarterback that is his job number 1. If Fields can’t be a good thrower, he can’t be a quarterback.
So any team that trades for him has to have faith he can keep developing as a passer. But how much should a team give up for Fields and how much will the Bears ask? If the Seahawks are remotely interested and the Bears ask for the number 5 overall pick as part of the package to get Fields, Seattle has to say no. Fields does have a team-friendly contract so that’s great, but if he never develops into a good quarterback, trading for him is a waste.