rockaction said:
Yes, it was indeed. I agree that it might be damaging to say something like that and not have any evidence. I was going further. There also is a counter-narrative to his "one-read" criticism that is predicated upon the football Twitterverse's belief that this is because of his race. In other words, Farrar and Nguyen are arguing that other quarterbacks aren't being subject to the same scrutiny because of his race. I've watched this unfold for a few weeks to a month now (I follow all these guys, and I can tell you that their political postings are sort of indicative -- Farrar's is -- of whether they believe this or not) from some corners. I'm bringing it up because I'm not sure I trust the counter-narrative over the narrative. But they make football points, so I'm inclined to agree with the counter-narrative, if that makes sense. I'm just saying the "one-read" thing isn't lazily racial. It's just because of a lack of knowledge about Fields's playbook. I fully expect Fields, if Farrar and co. are right, to rip it up in the pros.
No one knows for sure if that Fields stuff is racially based. That is a fact. It's also a fact that we don't now if the following is racially based:
We heard Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson (both would need YEARS of seasoning) couldn't read defenses. It's great that Lamar managed to overcome his clear learning deficiency and throw 6 picks during his MVP 2nd year in the league. Feel free to read the Lamar thread here for people regurgitating this talking point. It's all there.
Kyler
Murray was arrogant (like Cam), with questionable leadership skills. Jalen Hurts, wouldn't you know it? Even tho he had accuracy stats
only rivaled by Burrow and Tua that season, has problems with
progressions.
Trey Lance will need to sit for a while, because of his inexperience. Have you read any of those concerns about Mac Jones, who
started the same number of games? Can anyone answer this question with anything quantifiable?
No one says Darnold can't read defenses, or go through progressions.
Nope! Weird, considering he was a turnover machine in college. See, he just needs to
cut down, clean that up. Look at the hilarious list of positives and negatives in that scouting report. For real.
Johnny Football, no one questioned his game intelligence, nah, he just needed to
play within the offense.
Dan Orlovsky is smart enough to know this, and he's smart enough to realize late that he was being used to lower a guy's stock, and he did a 180, and owned up to what was happening. I don't like Orlovsky, but I love the way he handled this.
The crappy part is, whoever was trying to get Fields' stock to drop, knew that the old 'problems with progressions/can't read defenses' trope was tried and true, and would get repeated.