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Is he for real? ESPN analyst says playing baseball may have hurt Justin Fields’ mechanics
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Chris Mortensen may be responsible for the worst take on Justin Fields yet.
The former Ohio State quarterback has been criticized and critiqued quite a bit since the end of the college football season. Fields, who was once thought to be the No. 2 quarterback in this year’s draft class, is now listed as the No. 5 QB off the board in Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest mock draft.
Don’t worry, it gets worse. Somehow.
Recently on ESPN, Mortensen explained why he thinks Fields might be slipping in some of the latest mock drafts. He says that the former Buckeye used to play baseball, and that may be causing a slight issue with his mechanics. Seriously.
Below is the clip from Mortensen:
Chris Mortensen with a real humdinger here suggesting Justin Fields has bad throwing mechanics because he’s been playing baseball, a sport he has not played since 2018 pic.twitter.com/0idwpfUC11
— Ben Koo (@bkoo) April 13, 2021
Baseball didn’t seem to be an issue for Fields when he was guiding Ohio State to a 20-2 record over his two seasons as the starter, or when he was a Heisman Trophy finalist at the end of the 2019 season. He was also a two-time B1G Offensive Player of the Year.
Apparently none of that matters.
It’s going to be interesting to see where Fields lands come Draft Day, which is two weeks away. It’s hard to imagine we hear a worse take than the one Mortensen had, but we’ve been surprised before.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB