New York Giants free agency: What to like, not like, about QB Justin Fields

The New York Giants are looking for a new quarterback. Both Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito are free agents (the latter is an exclusive rights free agent). GM Joe Schoen may look to add multiple free-agent quarterbacks, and few possess an inexpensive upside like Justin Fields.

I was not a big Fields fan when he came out of Ohio State in 2021. His physical traits are tantalizing, and he has a cannon, but, similar to Daniel Jones, his ability to change consistently the pacing and touch of his passes seems unnatural. Like Jones, accuracy issues and a lack of anticipatory passing are still significant question marks for Justin Fields.

However, Fields is just 25 years old. He’ll cost the Giants little on the cap: Spotrac.com has his market value at $8.9 million average annual value — a shot on Fields at that price as the No. 2 quarterback is an interesting option.

Plenty of former first-round picks have found comfortable homes away from the teams that selected them: Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold are examples. Can Fields become yet another? I remain skeptical but intrigued by his potential. I trust his upside more than that of Zach Wilson and Mac Jones, albeit the latter could offer low-upside stability.

Fields started the first six games for the Pittsburgh Steelers while Russell Wilson was ailing from a calf injury. Fields led Pittsburgh to a 4-2 record before head coach Mike Tomlin made a somewhat controversial decision to bench Fields for Wilson. The offense did seemingly play better with Wilson as the signal caller.

Fields finished the season with 1,106 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, one interception, a Big Time Throw Rate of 3.4%, and a Turnover Worthy Rate of 2.8%. Fields was most dangerous with his legs; he rushed for 289 yards and five touchdowns with six fumbles. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith seemed to enjoy the physicality and mobility of the young quarterback. We’ll start there.

Fields’ legs

Offensive coordinators can game plan around Fields’ elusiveness and his dangerous rushing upside. His toughness — combined with his 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame — allows him to punish defenders. The defense must be cognizant of his location at all times for his rushing ability can manifest on quarterback scrambles, like we see in the play above and below:

But designed quarterback runs are even more exciting for a creative offensive coordinator. We’ve seen Brian Daboll design solid plays for Daniel Jones as a rusher, but Fields could take that to another level:

Smith designed a beautiful fake-pitch G-Lead for Fields in the red zone against the Las Vegas Raiders. His ability to tuck it and run forces the defense to stay disciplined with their run assignments, leading to more advantageous numbers on the opposite side, lest the defense gets greedy and Fields makes them pay with his speed.

Interior runs like QB-Power are also on the table with a signal caller like Fields. He picked up eight yards on this second-and-five run against the Indianapolis Colts. Fields’ presence offers the offense a much more creative and diversified rushing attack. He’s also a true threat as a zone read option:

Fields sealed a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals on this zone-read keeper late in the fourth quarter. His threat as a runner can almost go unstated; it’s so self-evident, but how is he as a passer?

Velocity

Fields can thread the needle over the middle of the field.

Fields tightly delivers a line drive to Van Jefferson (11) against the Dallas Cowboys’ zone defense. He waits for Pat Freiermuth (88) to get Eric Kendricks (50) to step to the right before squeezing the pass into Jefferson on a line. Fields gets good torque on his passes through his lower body and up until the point of release; this allows him to fire this football out of his hand in such a manner.

Fields does a good job reading the defense and firing this football into his quick curl on the numbers. The Colts are in a Cover-2 defense, and the boundary middle hook split the hash and the numbers; Fields diagnosed this and threw with anticipation right before Calvin Austin III (19) turned around. Fields ‘ excellent timing and rhythm allowed Pittsburgh to pick up this first down on third-and-nine.

Fields’ fastball has plenty of juice, and he can deliver catchable passes from the far-hash, albeit I would argue his ball placement is not consistently accurate. Still, we see him deliver a beautiful back-shoulder far-hash pass to Jefferson that’s dropped.

Flashes of accuracy

If a coach like Daboll can get a quarterback like Fields to consistently throw with accuracy, then the juice would undoubtedly be worth the squeeze for the Giants to pursue Fields at a discount.

Fields accurately found Darnell Washington (80) on this boundary back shoulder. The defensive leverage was inside and Fields quickly noticed the space toward the sideline. The ball was placed perfectly for Washington to secure the six points.

Fields took one step off the snap and fired a dart to Austin III, who defeated the soft inside lean of the cornerback. To be safe, Fields put the ball outside and away from the defender, allowing Austin III to effortlessly secure it before going out of bounds.

We see Fields again successfully attack outside the numbers off a well-run route by George Pickens (14). It’s another far-hash rip to the receiver’s outside shoulder that was placed well by the quarterback. Fields doesn’t necessarily showcase touch over the middle of the field, but he also had a few impressive throws with good overall accuracy between the numbers.

Fields waited just long enough for his receiver to get upfield and away from the underneath zone defender before throwing the ball low, which hit the receiver in the hands and was eventually dropped. There’s no room at all for Fields, but he provided a catchable pass.

Here’s good processing and awareness from Fields, who saw the coverage and understood the mismatch on third-and-fourteen. The Chargers dropped Tuli Tuipulotu (45) into coverage underneath Austin III, and Fields led the receiver upfield and away from the coverage on the slant. Fields quickly identified this at the line of scrimmage, resulting in a massive conversion for the offense.

Improvisor/unorthodox success

Fields can improvise and make plays outside of structure.

Fields is able to feel the crumbling pocket around him. He stepped up and stayed behind the line of scrimmage before getting square to his target and throwing across his body for the completion. This is an excellent highlight of Fields’ ability to create and extend plays. As we’ll see a bit later, his ability to deliver accurate passes on the move is inconsistent, but he does flash brightly.

This is a similar play to the one above, but Fields doesn’t have to step up and into the pocket; instead, just find the B-Gap that was essentially pushed right into the pocket. He then kept his eyes downfield to locate Pickens for a massive gain. The ability to stay aware and keep his eyes downfield shows maturity. Below is another adjustment off-script to Pickens that went for a big gain.

Then there’s this play that I appreciated. It’s subtle, but Fields apparently ripped a page out of Patrick Mahomes’ playbook.

If you look at the still frame, Fields’ hips, feet, eyes, and body are all oriented on Scotty Miller’s (13) in route underneath Pickens’ bender. The defender in conflict read Fields and jumped underneath Miller, but Fields quickly adjusted his throwing motion to complete the pass to Pickens for a first down.

Negatives

Fields lacks any consistency as an accurate passer. Even though he has a big arm, he underthrows too many passes, or sails them out of bounds. He completed this 31-yard pass below, but the throw forced the receiver to flatten his route, almost resulting in a pass defended or an interception:

The pass was still complete, but a better throw would have resulted in a touchdown. Giants fans understand the importance of ball placement and maximizing yards after the catch. Fields struggles to showcase this ability as a deep passer.

Fields underthrew this deep pass to Pickens off play-action and was reckless with the throw against this Tampa-2 defense. He threw right to the deep half safety to the field side. A reckless nature is something else that plagues Fields. Sometimes, he attempts to do too much, as we see below on this sack that knocked Pittsburgh out of field goal range on third down.

Here’s an interception Fields threw to an underneath zone defender that was called back because of a roughing the passer penalty:

For a mobile quarterback, Fields misses some gimme throws when he’s on the move:

Here are some other inaccurate throws; some were completed but made the play more complicated than it had to be:

Final thoughts

I am open to signing Fields to a cheap deal as a number two quarterback or possibly even a developmental number three; I do not want Fields to be the first option for the Giants heading into training camp. If Schoen pours assets into his quarterback room, a veteran, Fields, and possibly a rookie quarterback with a top-50 selection could be a path to fix this long-standing issue.

Fields is far from perfect, and there’s still plenty of room for growth and development, but I would roll the dice — at cost — on his tolls and upside. There are worse options out there. Although unlikely, Fields may be the best option to strike lightning in a bottle with a former first-round quarterback “bust.” I’m at least willing to see if that’s possible, albeit I’m not confident in its success.