It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We start off with the quarterbacks. Justin Fields wasn’t set up for success his rookie year, with Matt Nagy being a horrible coach, Allen Robinson doing the wide receiver multi-game equivalent of that time that Albert Haynesworth literally just laid down in the middle of a play, and Jimmy Graham inexplicably getting a ton of routes per game. There wasn’t anything there to help Justin Fields except Darnell Mooney. Now in year two with a new wide receiver corps and a new head coach, can Justin Fields break out?
Justin Fields ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: QB18, 126 overall
Average Auction Value: $1.4
Justin Fields Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Att | Comp | Comp% | Yds | TD | Int | Comp/G | Att/G | Yds/G | TD/G | INT/G |
| 2021 | 12 | 10 | 159 | 270 | 58.9% | 1870 | 7 | 10 | 13.3 | 22.5 | 155.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| Year | 4 PPTD | 6 PPTD | 4 PPTD/G | 6 PPTD/G | Year | Att | Yd | TD | YPC | Att/G | Yd/G | |
| 2021 | 126.8 | 140.8 | 10.6 | 11.73 | 2021 | 72 | 420 | 2 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 35.0 |
| Year | Air Yards | aDOT | aDOT+ | Y/A | TD% | INT% | Sacks | Yds/Sack |
| 2021 | 2634 | 9.76 | 9.76 | 6.90 | 4.4% | 6.3% | 36 | 7.33 |
aDOT+ represents a player’s depth of target compared to the league average for that season. Air yards data is from FTNFantasy.com/air-yards
2022 Justin Fields Fantasy Football Overview:
Justin Fields was in a terrible situation last year, and while Matt Nagy hit the bricks, his wide receiver situation might just be even worse in 2022. He lost Allen Robinson, leaving Darnell Mooney as his WR1. His WR2 is either Velus Jones (an overdrafted 2022 rookie), or Byron Pringle, who one superstar quarterback couldn’t unlock, or Equanimeous St. Brown, who another superstar wide receiver couldn’t unlock. It’s just terrible all around for Fields to throw to, and this might surprise you, but you can’t produce as a quarterback without someone to throw to.
Some like to argue that Justin Fields has QB1 upside. I am going to respectfully disagree there. Fields averaged 20.6 points per game in his best 3 games last season, doesn’t have a 3 game stretch averaging over 15 FPPG (even if you remove the sub 90% snap games!), and has Velus Jones as his WR2! Sorry to repeat the Velus Jones thing, but I feel like I can’t stress enough how terrible his weapons are!
The one saving grace for Justin Fields might just be his rushing. Thirteen quarterbacks last year rushed at least 50 times, and Justin Fields tied Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson for a second, at 5.8 yards per attempt. Here’s the rub, though: Fields ran the ball 72 times, and Jackson ran it 133. Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes so the rushing is a cherry on top and not something you desperately need to cross over the line from useless to useful for fantasy football. If the new Bears’ coaching staff doesn’t let Justin Fields run rampant, there’s not a lot of upside for him in fantasy football to finish inside the top-eight at the position, let alone the top-five.
2022 Justin Fields Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Justin Fields Auction Value: $-
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
Justin Fields’ early career is pockmarked with inconsistency. He runs a bit, sure. And he throws a bit, okay. But as of right now, I’m not seeing someone who has or will put it together anytime soon. And that has nothing to do with Justin Fields, the football player. The Bears have just done a spectacular job of surrounding him with some of the most marginal talent available, making me shy away from him this early in his career. Though he goes at pick 116, at QB18 overall. That’s an insanely cheap deal for a quarterback who should run enough to at least make him a weekly sleeper option in fantasy football leagues. And in salary cap drafts, he’s less than $2. So, for minimal investment, there’s possible maximum upside here.
Best Case Scenario:
Justin Fields and Darnell Mooney click, the coaches take off the restrictor plates and let him run wild, and Fields finishes as a top-eight quarterback.
Worst Case Scenario:
Justin Skyler Fields starts a football-themed Beatles cover band and tours the U.S.A. as their Ringo Starr stand-in: Justin S. Fields Forever.
Check out all our 2022 player profiles, here.
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[Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justin_Fields_(cropped).jpg under CC BY SA 2.0]
