Fields turns heads with deep throws, 40-time at Pro Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Justin Fields turned heads and widened eyes at Ohio State’s Pro Day on Tuesday.

Having seen his draft status slip behind several other quarterbacks on a number of mock drafts and evaluations leading into April, the two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year showed off 4.44 speed in the 40-yard dash and made a number of jaw-dropping throws downfield during his workout, with only one or two real misses on the day.

The highlight of Fields’ performance came on one of his final throws, as the Georgia native rolled out left and uncorked a 65-yard bomb on the move, dropping the ball in right on target to former Buckeye wideout C.J. Saunders at the goal line in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

“As a former quarterback, I probably would have broken my hip throwing that one, going to his left and throwing it,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “It might have gone 75 yards in the air, I’m not sure. It just goes to show how accurate he is down the field. He’s the most accurate down-the-field passer I’ve seen, and that was probably the most impressive looking at it.”

That throw drew a palpable reaction from those in attendance at the Buckeye facility, which included representatives for 31 of 32 NFL teams, 12 general managers and four head coaches, according to NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala.

“We were pretty much showing me escaping the pocket and getting my hips turned, but it was definitely one of my top throws of the day,” Fields said.

Of the few balls that did hit the ground during Fields’ workout, just one or two might have actually been his fault, with his most inaccurate moment coming on an overthrown ball to the right sideline while rolling left to avoid the simulated pressure.

Still, Fields’ Pro Day drew overwhelmingly positive reactions from talent evaluators and pundits across the board, even if his 4.44-second 40-yard dash time –– faster than any first-round quarterback in an NFL Combine since Robert Griffin III in 2012 –– was a bit under Fields’ own expectations.

“Everybody knows my goal in that 40-yard dash was at least to be in the 4.3s, of course I’m kind of mad about that,” Fields said. “But other than that, I thought I threw pretty well, I thought I just had a few missed throws, but that happens, not every Pro Day’s gonna be perfect. But overall, I thought I had a pretty solid day.”

Once thought to be the surefire No. 2 quarterback selected behind Trevor Lawrence in the 2021 class, Fields may no longer be that.

BYU’s Zach Wilson, who Fields worked out with in California ahead of his Pro Day, has surged up draft boards since the end of the season, and North Dakota State and Alabama’s Trey Lance and Mac Jones are in the mix as well.

If teams were on the fence about Fields prior to Tuesday’s showcase though, his impressive display might just have won him back a bit of favor with several NFL teams before the draft.

“At the end, he really was kind of showing off I thought, I mean just driving the ball downfield with unbelievable accuracy,” Day said. “Anybody who was here got to see it live and in color just how talented he is.”