New York Jets-2021 NFL draft breakdown: Justin Fields vs. Clemson

Sam Crnic analyzes New York Jets' possible target Justin Fields' terrific performance against Clemson in the CFP semifinal. Defined by extreme highs and lows, the 2020 college football season was undoubtedly a roller-coaster ride for Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. Starting his junior campaign with the same amount of touchdowns as incompletions (11) in the first three games, Fields led as the Heisman frontrunner in front of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. This glimpse of greatness did not last very long. Fields struggled mightily against two ranked opponents in Indiana and Northwestern, with two touchdowns and a concerning five interceptions, over the course of the next month. The once-terrific image of being a Heisman-favorite had suddenly turned to not even being the best QB in his class not named Trevor in the eyes of scouts. There was work to be done and a statement to be made leading up to the College Football Playoff semifinal against Clemson. Falling short to Clemson in the semifinal only a year ago, Fields and Ohio State were on a vengeful mission that would become the most important game in recent program history. Today, following Ohio State's disappointing loss to Alabama, we will take a look back at Fields' masterful performance against Clemson that quickly became the most impressive game of his football career. We will be using All-22 angles to dive deeper into the game than what you see on the broadcast. Did Fields regain QB2 spot? Ohio State vs. Clemson Game Recap In stunning fashion, the Ohio State Buckeyes upset and ran up the score on the heavily-favored Clemson Tigers in a 49-28 beatdown. Justin Fields went 22-for-28 for 385-yards passing with six touchdowns and one interception. Just how he began the season, Fields recorded as many touchdowns as incompletions (six) in the passing game. Fields also ran eight times for a total of 42 yards. There was adversity despite the eventual outcome. Justin was the victim of a targeting call in the second quarter, taking a helmet to his exposed rib cage. Only missing one play, Fields immediately targeted a wide receiver in the end zone, never losing a step while dealing with pain. His 385 yards and six touchdowns through the air represented a season-high, along with a passing efficiency rating of 257.6. Never taking the foot off the pedal, this performance almost felt personal for Fields. Justin capitalized to the fullest extent on losing only a year before a last-minute interception in the end zone. The All-22 was loaded with reasons to take Fields at the No. 2 pick. Despite this, there were a couple of concerns worth mentioning as well. The Good Throwing Strength I don't know who started the rumor that Fields' doesn't have ideal arm strength. Frankly, I don't care. The arm talent has always been there throughout his career and only continued to display itself in front of the national stage. On this play, Fields' combines eye manipulation and tremendous arm strength to deliver a 60-yard strike for a touchdown. I was questioning Fields' ability to maneuver in the pocket and keep his eyes up with a nearby friend right before this throw. I didn't say too much after that! Off the snap, you see Fields survey the boundary side route combination, which appears to just be a flat-route by the tight end and poorly-ran go-route by the perimeter wide receiver. By initially placing his eyes to this area, both two-high safeties turn their hips towards the boundary side, disregarding the other side of the field. The other side of the field happened to contain a post route against an outside leveraged cornerback. Once the WR breaks inside in regard to the post, the field side safety is supposed to help. As mentioned before, the safety disregards this by watching Fields' eyes and is completely caught off-guard when Fields quickly jerks his head to the middle field to quickly pull the trigger on the deep post. Fields doesn't even have a good base when launching this 60-yard throw. Not only does Fields do a terrific job of looking-off both safeties, but he maneuvers interior pressure in the pocket while keeping his eyes upfield and active. This is the most impressive play you'll see from this game. Without needing to look-off any safety, Fields reads the outside leverage and launches a 50-yard touchdown pass to yet another deep post route. Compared to the last clip, this touchdown came much easier to Fields. Upon the snap, the play-action pushes the second level defenders inwards, setting up a wide-open man down the boundary-side numbers if the post route wasn't so open on the other side. With the post being his first read, Fields reads the outside leverage based on the cornerback's positioning and hip alignment, knowing his WR will have separation once breaking inside. Taking full advantage of this, Fields launches a 50-yard strike immediately following the WR's break, giving him the chance to outrun his own defender and also not allowing the deep safety to intervene. Knowing the single-high safety is attempting to regain depth on the post-route, Fields leads the WR with a pass that forces the route to become a skinny post if anything. This puts the single-high safety out of recovering distance and lets his WR beat his defender to the ball with pure speed. So much for criticizing his arm strength. Throwing Velocity More of a compliment to his overall arm strength than anything, Fields showcased some zip on the ball on multiple occasions. Either not reading the zone coverage correctly or having confidence in his ability to fit the ball through the defender, Fields puts enough speed on the ball to hit the crossing tight end before a Clemson defender could undercut it: I felt the need to include this in the film review for one single reason: sheer talent overcame mental mistakes. You see Fields locking his eyes onto the crossing tight end until he releases the ball which gives the middle hook defender a chance to undercut the route and intercept the ball. In addition to that, the wide receiver in motion to the field side runs a beautifully-ran Texas route against a defender who is quickly out of position and leverage. There are three ways this play can go. One, Fields gets the ball out quicker to the TE and lets him run after the catch without fear of any undercutting defenders. Two, Fields checks off his initial read and finds the wide-open Texas route down the middle of the field. Both are low-risk, high-reward opportunities. Lastly, the third option is where Fields does neither of the above and throws a late ball to the TE. Well, he does the third option. And his arm talent overcomes this decision. Maybe it won't next game or in the NFL, but it did this time. Another display of Field's outstanding pass velocity, he slices the ball between two defenders for the touchdown toss. How many QBs do you see attempt and complete a pass like this every week? Fields targets yet another TE for the score off the pre-snap double motion. The TE stems outside which forces his defender in a side-step movement to maintain his own outside leverage on the route. This outside leverage is designed to force the route-runner back inside, where a safety over-the-top is perfectly positioned to defend a pass. The TE indeed breaks back inside following the initial outside stem, forcing the safety to help. Fields does an outstanding job at reading the leverages going on with this play and knowing exactly when to throw the ball. Immediately following the TE's inside break, Justin bullets a ball high and away from both the initial defender and over-the-top safety for the touchdown. One of the more impressive showcases of throwing strength you'll see on film. Running Ability While the injury to his ribs limited his running ability down the stretch, there were two great examples during the game that exhibited Fields' special effectiveness with his legs. This one was my favorite. Fields puts the team on his back and makes the very most out of a broken play. Originally being a slip screen call to Trey Sermon (No. 8), he gets stuck as the Clemson defenders quickly process what's going on. Instead of giving up on the play and throwing the ball to the dirt, Justin makes something out of absolutely nothing. He evades the initial edge pressure and turns the corner on the remaining defensive linemen to rush for seven yards on the play. While seven yards doesn't seem like a huge game-changer play too many, Fields gets his team much closer to the endzone - from the 15-yard mark to the 7-yard mark - for a third-and-goal situation. A play later, this initial effort from Fields rewards him with a touchdown pass, tying the game at 14. If you still aren't impressed, when was the last time a Jets' QB slid that fluidity? The most common form of Fields' running ability is the zone read. Here you see Justin reading the edge defender's positioning, choosing to keep the ball and scramble for the first down. Pre-snap, Fields knows the right tackle and right guard have to combination block the 3-tech defender, which sets up the 5-tech lineman without a blocker off the TE motion. This is the defender Fields has to read. If he attacks the running back at mesh point, Justin keeps the ball. If he stays on Fields, the running back keeps the ball through the outside zone. With the edge's eyes all over the RB and drifting towards him as well, Fields makes the easy read and keeps the ball. From there, he runs through the C-gap for 12 yards and the first down. For the second clip in a row, Fields avoids the big hit and gives himself up by diving forward. Progressions One of my largest criticisms of Justin coming into the game was his ability to quickly survey the field and hit his check-down if necessary. Not only did Fields soon answer these criticisms, but it looked as though there was a plan in place to address Justin's vision of the field. In the first clip, you see the first example of multiple triangle reads that Fields was given during the game. This read system gives Justin three different routes on the same side of the field, connecting in a triangle-like shape. Each route finishes right after the next, so, as Fields progresses through each route, the WR is just finishing their route as Justin works his eyes over to them. Fields sees the play-side middle-hook linebacker stick with his initial read TE at the boundary-side hash, which tells him to progress his eyes towards the next route. With the middle hook linebacker occupied, the next curl route is uncovered towards the field-side hash mark, warranting a throw from Justin. He makes the throw as he's hit, showing off some of the toughness we see the entire game. Once again, the triangle read system is evident in this clip. The throw comes a little high, but Fields makes the correct read with fast processing. Watch the sole linebacker on the second level of the defense as Fields snaps the ball. He drops back into coverage, yet sticks to the TE's route which is Fields' first read. He sees two defenders in the area of his first read, which makes him quickly progress to the second read. The second read is the strong-side perimeter WR who runs to the boundary-side hash and turns his hips to the QB. Just as the triangle-read system is designed to do, the WR turns back to Fields just as he works his eyes off the double-covered TE. After a brief moment of hesitation, Fields throws to the wide-open WR and gets the first down. While the pass is a little high, it looked as though he had to throw with a defender in his face, a reason to put unexpected-air on the ball. Despite the triangle-read system used throughout the game, Fields displayed his ability to progress his eyes on different route concepts as well. Off the snap, Fields' eyes are pointed towards the route combination near the opposite hash. You see a hitch towards the sideline with a fade ran by the slot. While the slot-WR looks open at first, Fields is aware-enough to see the over-the-top safety moving over to that area. If he throws a pass there, it's an interception. Not seeing anything open towards the middle field, Justin takes advantage of the defense and throws it to the check-down back. While progressing through the entire field, Justin has to maneuver through pressure. The center gives up pressure through the right A-gap, making Fields step up and drift leftwards. He does it while still keeping his eyes up to survey the field. Without any attempt to immaturely bail the pocket, Fields stands strong in the pocket while not forcing any throws, knowing where his check-down is at all times. In addition to the triangle reads, I thought Fields was given a good portion of half-field reads as well. Focusing on the boundary side of the field, you see a flood concept that is broken into three different levels. The perimeter runs a go route while the field-side WR runs a dig-route towards the opposite sideline, followed by a delayed flat-route by the check-down RB. As you can see, these three route-runners run to three different areas of the same sideline. This simplifies Justin's decision making. The go-route clears out the perimeter CB as he's forced to follow the WR up the field. Once cleared out, the dig route has a chance to be completed along the sideline or even in the middle field if one of the linebackers travels to the check-down RB. This doesn't happen, so Fields immediately redirects to the wide-open RB and secures the first down. Despite focusing on the dig route for most of his time in the pocket, he quickly jerks his head to the RB in the perfect moment. It's almost as if he had a mental timer on when to target his check-down if he couldn't find anyone else open. Anticipation While this is one of the traits I wish Justin would show a little more on tape, I caught two moments where I was impressed with when he began his throw in relation to the WR's current positioning. Throwing the ball before the WR could even get past the CB, Fields correctly reads the leverage and puts the ball in a perfect spot in accordance with what he saw. With a single-high safety look before the snap, Justin sees an opportunity on the boundary side of the field. The route concept is similar to what we've already seen, which is a hitch-route on the perimeter followed by a fade-route by the slot. If the cornerback doesn't quickly gain depth when switching his focus from the perimeter WR to the slot, he could fall victim to the speedy Garrett Wilson (WR, No. 5). Upon the snap, Fields briefly jerks his head in the direction of the right side of the field. This drifts the single-high safety to the right, allowing more room on the other side. Once Justin gets his focus back on the boundary-side, he sees that the CB failed to gain enough depth in time to run with Wilson on the fade. Reading this from a very early point, Fields lofts the ball up and towards the sideline where only Wilson can catch it. By putting it towards the sideline, the ball becomes out of reach to the single-high safety and reads the perimeter CB losing his outside leverage due to just trying to catch up with Wilson. A little bit of everything you want to see in a QB on this play. This one was my favorite. Fields puts the ball in a perfect location with exceptional anticipation and timing for the touchdown. Did I mention it was his first play off his earlier gruesome-looking rib injury? Usually, I'm not a fan of play-designs like this in the red zone because of how it shuts off half of the field in an already small area to work with. But talent always overcomes. Taking advantage of the extended side of the field, Fields is given the chance to scramble to his right until Chris Olave (WR, No.2) sharply breaks to the front corner of the endzone. With such a small area to work with, Fields has to get the ball out even before Olave can create separation. When the clip pauses, you can see Justin beginning his throwing motion before Olave can even turn his eyes back to the ball. By the time he flips his hips towards the right sideline, the ball is already moments away from his grasp. You can tell this play was heavily practiced based on the precise timing involved from both a route-running and throwing standpoint. The Bad Missed Throw This was easily Field's best performance of the 2020 season based on how many questions and critics he answered throughout the game. Despite this, there were a few mistakes and concerns worth mentioning. While there were many occasions of beautifully-placed deep balls against Clemson, he missed a large opportunity here. Everything else goes to plan, just not the throw. Only rushing three defenders, Clemson drops back eight to force Fields to progress through his reads. On the boundary side of the field, Ohio State has a TE stop at the first down marker off a break to the outside, while the perimeter WR runs a fade after originally stemming inside. There seems to be a miscommunication between the middle and boundary-side safety as there is no over-the-top help once the perimeter WR breaks to the outside down the field. It looks like the boundary-side safety gets caught eyeing the TE too long as the WR runs right past him. This leaves the middle field safety trying to catch up despite being already out-leveraged to the outside. This is a wide-open throw for Fields. He just misses it. Fortunately for the star QB, to miss such an open target is a rare occurrence. Missing Reads Despite my previous excitement of how fluently Fields was reading the Clemson defense with help from the play design, there were times where Justin either forced a pass that just wasn't there or missed a potential target altogether. Some of this may be nitpicking, but certainly worth mentioning. While eventually throwing an interception based on a deflected pass at the line of scrimmage, Fields' initial decision to throw the ball in this location was faulty at best. Focusing on the field side, Ohio State runs a variation of a smash concept out of the bunch. The inside WR runs a flat-route, the TE runs a spot-route which drifts him inside, and the outside WR runs a corner-route. From the start, this play looks out of sorts on multiple levels. First, the corner route runs out of room in the back of the endzone too quickly. Fields needs time to sell the fake to the spot-route TE, and by the time he does that, there's no room to target the corner-route WR who appears open. Whether he was supposed to angle his break more to the top corner of the endzone or Fields wasn't supposed to pump-fake, this play just doesn't work. Even if Fields doesn't pump-fake, there's no reason for the defensive backs to bite on anything, which doesn't allow the corner-route WR to create separation. What Fields should've done is recognize the lack of room in the endzone and target the TE. The flat-route WR is covered, which presents the spot-route as the last option. Even if he can't reach the endzone, it's a better bet than forcing the corner. While I think Fields read this situation wrong, he definitely could've been trying to just throw the ball away before it got tipped. This next play confused me. Why is Fields just staring down a poorly-ran route compared to progressing his eyes to the other side of the field? He misses a man over-the-top alongside the boundary-side sideline. It's one thing to originally look right then quickly look back left, but Fields doesn't survey the right side of the field even once. After two seconds of looking to his left in the pocket, both two-high safeties have already turned their hips to relation to the left sideline and left the boundary-side cornerback on an island. And why is Justin drifting left in the pocket when there's room on the right? I can appreciate Fields throwing the ball away instead of forcing it to Olave, but one jerk of the head to the boundary side of the field will warrant an easy touchdown toss. Obviously, a go-route on the short side of the field against a two-high look isn't a smart move, but Fields manages to move both safeties out of position rather quickly. Once he flips the hips of the boundary-side safety, the perimeter WR easily separates downfield with leverage. If Justin can consistently combine eye manipulation with quickly progressing his reads, he's a dangerous QB on any skill level. While I may be nitpicking on this criticism, Justin misses a wide-open WR on the field-side perimeter. Hitting this throw would've been the difference between a rib injury and a first down. I'm nitpicking on this one because of two reasons. One, the cornerback is bailing off the snap with his eyes on the QB, so Fields has every reason to progress his eyes to another route. Two, Fields' would've had to work back to that side of the field from already looking at it off the snap. That's hard to do when the pocket around you is unstable. Despite this, he does glance towards the field side a second time, but only briefly and doesn't see the open WR. I had to include this just because of how open the perimeter WR is before Fields decides to use his legs. The pocket was unstable for a second, but Justin has max protection. There was still every reason to notice the wide-open WR and not have the urge to just scramble away. Alas, that instinct or mental clock to scramble instead of surveying the field one last time is the difference between a first down and a potential game-ender injury. Fortunately, the targeting call gets Ohio State the first down even if it meant sacrificing Fields' ribs. Largest Takeaway Discussing the sequence of Fields getting injured and then coming back in, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day commented: "There was a time in there when he came off the injury, went back in, and then threw the touchdown pass. I'm like, 'Can you throw?' He says, 'I think I can... I think I can do it.' And he throws a frozen rope in there, and he's kind of holding himself as he runs off the field... He couldn't do everything, but what a gutsy performance. What a tough and special young man Justin Fields is." Fields looks forward to preparing for the 2021 NFL draft following a crushing loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship. While his performance in that game wasn't anything special, his spectacular and efficient play over the past two years has solidified the Georgia native as a top-five pick. Perhaps the largest takeaway from his stellar play against Clemson has to be the potential of how great Fields can truly be at the next level. With numerous questions surrounding his mental processing and ability to progress reads leading up to the game, Fields silenced every critic. Throughout the semifinal, Justin trusted his eyes, progressed his reads, and knew when to hit his check-down when necessary. Even when thought to be counted out of the game with a rib injury, Fields came back even stronger and sent his high school rival in Trevor Lawrence packing. The New York Jets recently hired former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh who soon brought along former 49ers passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur. With Jets fans expecting an offense based on Kyle Shanahan's aggressive wide zone scheme, the question persists of who will be leading the charge at QB. The options seem to be Zach Wilson, Sam Darnold, and Fields as the Jets begin the 2021 offseason. Wilson ended his season in December on a high note with an easy defeat of UCF (49-23) in the Boca Raton Bowl. Darnold ended his disastrous season just as it started; flashes of greatness wasted by too many costly mistakes in between. Justin's season may have ended on a sad note with a loss in the championship, but encouraging and tough play against worthy opponents has earned him a new level of respect around the NFL. But did he prove himself as QB2 in the draft? That's to be determined in the months ahead.