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Fox Sports NFL game analyst Mark Schlereth likens Jets QB Justin Fields to his golf game.
“When I watched him initially as a young player – I had a couple of Chicago games (on Fox Sports) when he was a rookie and a second-year player, I likened him to my golf game,” Schlereth said on his podcast. “What I meant by that was. I would go out and have 18 opportunities to hit a drive. I would shank one, pull one, slice one, and all of a sudden I’d be on 16 and it would be a par 5 and I would pipe one down the middle 325 and I was like ‘Damn I got it, I’m back on – I’m in again.’ And that was [Fields’] game, man.”
Early on, Schlereth saw a young quarterback who was capable of great plays, but mixed in with some shanks.
“You’d see him air mail (a pass), dip one – bounce it into the ground,” Schlereth said. “You’d see one nowhere near where it was supposed to be.”
But then the highlight film plays.
“And then he’d have that dagger concept where the inside receiver would clear out and you had that outside receiver 18-20 yards out and that bad boy was on a rope hit the receiver in stride and he’s taking off down the football field,” Schlereth said.
And the game analyst thinks that if Fields could just do that more consistently, he could be something special.
“You were like man, if you could just make that a repeatable motion, that this guy could be great,” Schlereth said. “Because you look at Justin Fields’ ability to run the ball, RPO stuff, the run option stuff, the dude is dynamic.”
Can he make the big plays, big throws, more consistently? We shall see.
But remember, with the Jets’ last two young promising quarterbacks, Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson, there were great plays mixed in, but also a lot of clunkers, and it never evened out with the Jets.
However, Darnold did pop a little last year with the Minnesota Vikings, consistently making plays, more bad plays than good ones, after up-and-down stints with the Jets and Panthers.
It was Darnold’s seventh year. The lightbulb seemed to come on.
So maybe now, in Fields’ fifth season, after up and down stints in Chicago and Pittsburgh, this young quarterback’s lightbulb will come on.
“If he can figure it out and he’s gotten better every year, I think he can be the solution at quarterback for the Jets,” Schlereth said.
Man, do the Jets hope so.
But nobody, as we sit here on July 17, with training camp opening July 22, knows if this is going to happen.
It will be great theater starting July 22, into the preseason, and then into the season, to see if the lightbulb truly comes on.
There is something about watching a TV show, movie, play, whatever, and you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The Jets rolling the dice with Fields at QB is like one of those great mystery novels.
Buckle-up.
July 17, 2025
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