Removing Restraints from Justin Fields' Game

Justin Fields has grown tired of playing like he's a Robo QB.

Fields feels he is being coached into being robotic and wants to play freely in the future, after struggling for the season's first two weeks.

"Felt like I was kind of robotic and not playing like myself," Fields said. "My goal this week is just to say 'F' it and go out there and play football, how I know to play football. That includes thinking less and just going out there and playing off of instincts rather than so much say info in my head, data in my head. Just literally going out there and playing football. Going back to it's a game and that's it.

"That's when I play my best, when I'm just out there playing free and being myself, so I'm going to say kind of bump all the what I should, this and that, pocket stuff. I'm going to go out there and be me."

Fields hid nothing about where he thinks his robotic self came from, and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy might have some explaining to do at his Thursday weekly press conference.

The key point seems to be going through his progressions in the passing game, looking from one receiver to the next to find one before leaving the pocket.

"You know, could be coaching I think," Fields said. "At the end of the day, they are doing their job when they are giving me what to look at, but at the end of the day, I can't be thinking about that when the game comes.

"I prepare myself throughout the week and then when the game comes, it's time to play free at that point—thinking less and playing more."

Information Overload

Fields classified the coaching as possible oversaturation but not necessarily a case of too many different voices.

"I don't think it's too many coaching voices but I just think when you're fed a lot of information at a point in time and you're trying to think about that info when you're playing, it doesn't let you play like yourself," he said. "You're trying to process so much information to where it's like, if I just simplify it in my mind I would have did this.

"I saw a few plays on Sunday, if I was playing like my old self, we would have had a positive play. There would have been more third down conversations. I think that's just the biggest thing for me is playing the game, how I know how to play, and how I've been playing my whole life. That's what I got to get back to doing."

Fields is 40 of 66 (60.6%) for 427 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions for a passer rating of 70.7. He is eighth in rushing among NFL quarterbacks with 62 yards on 13 attempts a year after he ran for 1,143 yards and led all QBs in rushing.

He called the first series of the game an example of playing freely and effectively.

"After a big chunk play, we are on the ball and rolling," Fields said. "I think chunk plays and kind of getting back to – like the first drive, for example, we hit the dagger to DJ, then we had a third down conversion on a choice route. That's kind of what that looks like."

A good example of being too robotic was a strip-sack he blamed on staying too long in the pocket.

"Exactly. I'm leaving, I'm gone, time clock, I'm gone out of the pocket," he said. "That's why that happened, because they wanted me to work on staying in the pocket during the offseason, which, there's times where you do but when that internal clock goes off that's when you need to get out and extend the play, make a play."

The coaching staff wasn't necessarily at fault, he said.

"I think there's been times where I just try to be a perfectionist and nothing in this world is perfect," Fields said. "So like I said, stop thinking more and just go out there and play."

Fields said he addressed the situation with coaches.

"Yeah, and we've talked about this multiple times," he said. "Nobody is going to take anything personal. If the coaches say we need to play better, I need to play better, I'm not taking that personal because I think everybody in here knows that I need to play better, including myself. They're not going to take it personal if us as players go to them and say, 'I didn't like this call.' They need to be better.

"We're all grown men in the building and we all can take it. It's about working with each other, getting each other better, holding each other accountable and working towards the same goal. In terms of that fact, yeah, I think everybody can do better around here, including myself."

It's Nothing Personal

Eberflus had no argument with Fields' comments.

"I think that a player needs to feel free, he needs to have the flow of the game, he needs to use his instincts," Eberflus said. "That's what you want from players. You have any players like that, if it's a receiver, linebacker, defensive line, those guys, you've gotta play free. The guys were brought here to play that way. We want to see them. We want to see those in-the-game situations.

"Certainly as a quarterback you've got to go through your progressions, but there's also instincts that are involved in that and we want him to have that flow and have that freedom to do those things."

Eberflus described the coaching and player relationship as a partnership.

"It's the partnership," he said. "Like I said, he respects that partnership and so do we. We want him to play free. I think it's very important that as we work through this making sure that he does play free, that we coach him that way.

"A lot of times he wants to be perfect he wants to be perfect. He wants to do it the right way. And there's a balance there, though, right? There's a balance between, 'Hey, going through my progressions, but also having the ability to say, 'Hey, I feel these things happening. Now I'm going to play instinctual.' And that could be just sliding up in the pocket in the B-gap and delivering the ball or taking off and running. I think that’s where that is."

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