With several years of bench sitting, Fields might have turned out. In college you could see Love going thru his progressions, Fields was a one or maybe two read guy most of the time - he had the better talent at OL and receiver than his opponents 90% of the time.

Fields is unquestionably talented. I think the mental processing part of it - which as FT pointed out is incredibly difficult to do as a pro - is where he struggles. He has made some very small improvement there since entering the league.

Even last year with DJ Moore a large percentage of his throws were within 5 yards of the LOS. That is not an elite QB. He fumbles a lot and is sacked a very high percentage, both of which you largely have to put on the QB, not the OL. None of the metrics indicate that he has been or will be better than league average.

Yeah he has an arm. So did Kyle Boller. Vince Young could throw and run too, and was super talented. Don't confuse physical talent with being able to play QB. Nobody confused Brady or Manning with great athletes; it was all between the ears with them.

Sure, maybe Smith can get something out of Fields with a year of tutoring. He's worth taking a flier on, but best case you get a QB guru who can teach and cook up a half-field read offense like they did with Mike Vick. I just don't see that happening, he's not that level of talent, and defenses are too good for that
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Look, you can love the tools, but as someone who loves wins, I don't know how you can pretend that a 35% winning percentage (and a 60% completion rate) makes a good QB. This guy is a more athletic Zach Wilson.