Justin Fields wasn’t yet the starter at Ohio State, and Dwayne Haskins wasn’t yet a first-round pick (not officially, anyway), but Fields can remember the boost of confidence Haskins tried to give him as they walked down the tunnel together for warmups before the Buckeyes’ spring game in 2019.
This is yours now, Fields recalls Haskins telling him.
Both had the world in front of them at the time. Twelve days later, Haskins would be drafted No. 15 by his hometown team in Washington. A few months after that, Fields would seize the starting job in Columbus, and wound up finishing the year first in New York for the Heisman ceremony, then in Arizona for the College Football Playoff.
What Haskins meant on that April day, really, was that the shot to lead a loaded Ohio State roster into 2019 was there for Fields. What neither guy may have recognized at the time was that Haskins was handing him a legacy.
“I’m not gonna lie, he kind of did start something,” Fields said while driving home from the Bears’ offseason program on Tuesday. “You can say he did. We’ll never know if I’d have gone to Ohio State if he wasn’t there, but you can give him credit for starting something. I was thinking about that the other day, and I saw something online—before him, there really wasn’t an elite passer at Ohio State for years before.
“I think he started that elite passing group with, of course, him, me and now C.J. [Stroud].”
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Haskins tragically died Saturday, at 24. Rightfully, much of the focus since has been on the genuine, positive, always-smiling personality that Haskins had, and the way he connected with so many of those around him.
But even if he never got to turn the corner as a pro, he will leave a legacy as a player.
And Fields is a pretty good illustration of it, as is Stroud, and as will be, in all likelihood, whoever comes after Stroud. Because you can argue that Haskins didn’t just affect the direction of Ohio State football, which he undoubtedly did. He also affected the way the game was played in the Big Ten as a whole. The numbers make that clear.
• His 50 TD passes in 2018 broke a 20-year-old conference record, set by Drew Brees at Purdue. And it broke Brees’s record (38) by 11.
• Haskins’s 4,939 yards of total offense that fall broke Denard Robinson’s eight-year-old record (4,272) by nearly 700 yards.
• Haskins became the first first-round QB from Ohio State in 37 years.
It wasn’t just that it happened, either. It was the way it looked, too
“It was just how live his arm was,” Fields said. “He’s got a whip. The ball came off his hand like nobody else; it’s just how much of a natural thrower he was, and how live his arm was.”
And when Fields was considering transferring after spending his freshman year at Georgia, he got to see some tape of it. He’d also had met Haskins, if only in passing, working with their shared quarterback coach, Quincy Avery, in Atlanta. But truth be told, at that point—in part, because, as Fields says, “I’m kind of an introvert. … When I first meet a person, I’m not quick to ask them a lot of questions”—there really wasn’t a connection between the two.
Plenty of factors played into Fields deciding to go to Ohio State. The way Haskins and the offense exploded under coordinator-turned-head-coach Ryan Day in 2018 was a big one, of course, as was his opportunity to start. Who Haskins was wasn’t, until Fields got to meet Haskins on his official visit, with his decision to become a Buckeye all but made.
Even though Haskins had already declared for the draft, he played host for Fields’s weekend on campus, introducing him to his girlfriend, taking him to a basketball game with ex-coach Urban Meyer, and showing him around a campus he never got to see as a prep recruit.
“If I’m gonna be honest with you, before that, we kind of talked, but we didn’t really talk that much,” Fields said. “It seemed like when I was there, we’d known each other our whole lives. He was so cool, so welcoming. I think that’s where our relationship turned into a more personal relationship, us getting to know each other more. And he became like a big brother to me.”
So it was that they were there in the tunnel before the spring game, with Haskins passing the baton, and so it continued with little things over the course of Fields’s starry career in Columbus.
“Simple texts—Yo, great game, Watched your highlights and saw you did this or that, or go beat the team up North,” Fields said. “Little stuff here and there. He wanted to see everyone succeed. He wanted to see everyone be their best.”
Fields and Haskins last saw each other in November, when the former’s Bears played the latter’s Steelers on a Monday night. The interaction came before kickoff in, again, the tunnel, and even though Pittsburgh won, the Bears’ rookie pushed the Steelers to the edge with a breakout performance in the second half.
Five months later, he got the tragic news the same way so many other people did, waking up on Saturday morning and seeing it on the internet. “After I saw it, I kind of froze, I was like, Is this real?“ Fields said. “It still hasn’t hit me. I still don’t believe it. It’s still hard to grasp.”
And understandably, it’s still tough for Fields to find the right way to contextualize feelings that remain pretty raw. But he knows what he’ll remember about his friend, and what his friend left for him to carry on is a part of that.
“It’s just how positive he was,” Fields said. “Everyone he met, I don’t think he disliked anybody, he always had that positive attitude, always wanted to get better, he was always working hard, it was just … it was tough to see. Really, it puts it in perspective. It shows you that tomorrow isn’t promised. Anything can happen, His impact on everybody he came in contact with, when he was here, on earth, that’s the biggest thing I take.
“It's the impact he had on not only me, but even C.J., that whole line of quarterbacks, and all his teammates he played with.”
As we’ve heard the last few days, it’s off the field of course. But there’s a lot he left on the field, too, for guys like Fields, and now Stroud to chase.
And with that, let’s get to your mail for the week …
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From Ricker81 (@D_Ricker81): Do you see the Giants as a potential trade-up partner for teams at either Nos. 5 or 7? If so, which teams could be looking to move up?
Ricker, I actually think the Giants’ preference might be to trade out to next year with one of their picks. And I could certainly see a scenario where they take, say, Mississippi State tackle Charles Cross with the fifth pick, then move the seventh pick for maybe a third-rounder this year and a first next year.
The reason why it’ll be difficult relates to your second question—and whether there’ll be a pressure point where another team wants to move up. I think Aidan Hutchinson will be gone in the first two picks, and by the time the Giants are up at five, either Travon Walker, Kayvon Thibodeaux, or both will be gone too. That would leave Jermaine Johnson available from the top tier of edge rushers. And my guess is that Evan Neal and Ickey Ekwonu will be off the board when the Giants pick, too, which would leave Cross out there from the top tier of tackles.
My guess is if someone’s trading up, it’d probably be to get a guy at one of those two positions, the premium spots that have the class’s best players and where there’s real value in having a stud on a rookie contract. I might be wrong, and maybe someone will love one of the quarterbacks and come get him. That just seems unlikely at this point, especially that high in the draft, based on how just about everyone I talk to is panning the class.
Which is to say that I think there’s a divide here between what the Giants might want to do and what they’ll actually be able to do. I think they’d like to trade. I don’t know that a legit opportunity to do it will be there.
From smatt (@Smitty_Matt): Would you rather be a Jets fan or Jags fan right now looking forward?
This is a fascinating question. I’m on record having said I really like the Jets’ offseason. The signing of Laken Tomlinson is an investment back into the development of Zach Wilson. They got two pros to fill their tight end need, in C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin. And they got a captain for their secondary in Jordan Whitehead. On top of that, all four are from franchises that have won, and won recently.
That said, I still can’t get past the years of what we expected Trevor Lawrence to be.
He wasn’t just a good prospect. He was the best one at the most important position to come into the league in almost a decade. And I’m supposed to get past that because of a rookie year played in the 2021 tire fire that was Urban Meyer’s lone season in Jacksonville? I’m supposed to get past that because of 17 starts played with an aging Marvin Jones as his top receiver, and Dan Arnold and James O’Shaughnessy as his tight ends? I’m supposed to get past it because he couldn’t, at 21, take a train in a ditch and put it back on the rails?
Lawrence should be fine. No, he wasn’t what everyone thought he’d be coming into the NFL—he needs to process faster, and the learning curve from Clemson to the pros was steeper than I thought it’d be. But few have the big-game experience or package of physical traits that Lawrence brings. Ultimately, and maybe as soon as this fall, we’ll have him with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow among the AFC’s elite.
So give me the Jags, so long as they can create a little more stability around Lawrence.
From Frank Davis (@Frankied35): What is a realistic deal for Deebo and Tory Dandy’s other clients (A.J. Brown/DK Metcalf)?
Frank, I’m really interested in this discussion, and I understand grouping the guys together because Dandy’s the agent, and Dandy has a lot of experience in big-ticket negotiations to precede all this. But I actually think they’re a little bit different—DK Metcalf and A.J. Brown will be negotiating contracts as conventional receivers, and what either seeks, and what the Seahawks and Titans are willing to give, will be measured against what Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs just got in Miami, Vegas and Buffalo.
Samuel is different. Yes, he was fifth in the league in receiving yards last year, with 1,405 on 77 catches. But he plays the position differently—with a good number of his snaps coming out of the backfield and a fair number of his touches (59) coming in the run game (he rushed for 365 yards last year and actually scored eight touchdowns on the ground vs. six through the air). And that could lead you to one of two conclusions.
1. He’s a unique player who’s an excellent receiver at a baseline and, as such, probably should make more than what the best receivers make.
2. He’s a super-charged gadget player who’s being maximized in a hyper-creative scheme and, thus, might not have market value to match his productivity.
You’d probably only need one guess to figure out which side would take which position.
And this is where the history of the agent and the team comes in. The 49ers have long wanted to do lengthy extensions with players to maintain control over the back end of those deals. Dandy, conversely, just did a pair of big-money three-year deals for receivers—one for Chris Godwin, the other for Mike Williams, with an eye of getting them another payday in their twenties.
So to me, the middle ground here might be the Niners giving on upfront cash, and Samuel and Dandy giving on term—so maybe you’ll see a five-year extension (covering six years) that has $75 million or so packed into its first three years, with smaller numbers on the back end. My guess is Samuel will shoot for more than that, while that might be too rich for the Niners initially. But I think it’d be a good middle ground.
Whether it’s attainable, based on where the negotiation is, I don’t know. I’d figure in the interim John Lynch will get calls on Samuel’s availability, and he’s shown no fear in dealing off young stars in the midst of a contract negotiation before (see: Buckner, DeForest), especially when there’s another one to take care of simultaneously (Arik Armstead then, Nick Bosa now). But I think a real effort to do a new contract will happen before then.
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From Koo-dy (@matt2julio): Will the Falcons stop breaking my heart?
Koo, I’m here to give you reasons for optimism. One, I think Arthur Smith and his staff showed their chops last year in getting a roster without much depth to seven wins and keeping it in the playoff hunt through Christmas. Two, in doing what the staff did in getting there, developing talent like they did with players like A.J. Terrell and Kyle Pitts, and maximizing talent as they did with a guy like Cordarrelle Patterson, getting buy-in should be relatively easy.
Now, here’s the hard part: This sure looks like it’ll be the step-back year. In a lot of ways, the plan (and I’m not saying it’s necessarily going to play out the same) is like how Buffalo built a half-decade ago. In Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane’s first year there, the Bills kept a veteran team intact and made the playoffs. The next year, they ripped the salary-cap Band-Aid off, ate a bunch of dead money and reset the roster with young guys. The year after that, 2019, they were back in the playoffs with a team that was built to last.
The hope is that in building around last year’s draft class and this year’s draft class, the roster will improve through this year after last year’s program-establishing season. And just as important as wins and losses will be the amount of work those guys get in and how they come along. Which, really, is my way of saying a good way of judging the Falcons will be in seeing how they look in December vs. where they were in September.
From Dennis (@tribeguy559): What is Clowney waiting for?
Maybe Jadeveon Clowney doesn’t want to show up for the offseason program. Or even the early stages of training camp. He wouldn’t be the first guy to feel that way, or the first star to act on it by waiting until some point in the summer to sign.
From Cam Gravina (@CoachGrav): Do you think there is any chance the Patriots can land Jameson Williams? With them trading up or him falling?
Cam, the short answer is I don’t know. Jameson Williams’s draft stock is hard to peg because his ACL injury makes him at the very least a redshirt candidate for whatever team takes him later this month. A normal nine-month recovery timetable might put him on the field in October. But will he be ready to go after missing all the physical reps of the spring and summer? And if not, how long will it take him to get up to speed?
These are all things to consider, and probably takes teams with decision makers on the hot seat off the table. Could the Jets take him at No. 10, or would they want to get Wilson more immediate help? Can the Commanders, at No. 11, afford to wait? Would the Saints, at Nos. 16 or 19, want to bank on another receiver coming off an injury, as their own star, Michael Thomas, is?
I don’t think the Patriots are going to trade up for Williams, to be clear. But it’s certainly possible that he could fall to them. And while I do believe, internally, they think there are bigger needs (linebacker, corner, offensive line) on the roster, the idea of pairing Williams with Mac Jones would probably be pretty tempting.
From Anthony Amico (@amicsta): Who are some players you hear are higher on NFL draft boards than we see in the media? Lower?
Anthony, when I was putting together my own personal first mock, just to try to organize my thoughts after my first round of draft calls, here are some names I heard.
Charles Cross, OT, Mississippi State: Of the top guys, Cross is the most natural left tackle—some teams believe N.C. State’s Ickey Ekwonu may be better off at guard, and Alabama’s Evan Neal might belong on the right side. Right now, it sort of feels like Cross’s range might be between No. 5 (Giants) and No. 9 (Seahawks).
Jahan Dotson, WR, Penn State: His size has some people believing that he might be just a slot receiver in the pros, and not the inside/outside weapon he was as a collegian. But he does just about everything well, and I think he’s got a better shot to sneak into the first round than most people seem to be giving him credit for.
Zion Johnson, G, Boston College: Just a really good player who’s a middle-of-the-fairway type of pick for the end of the first round. My guess is he'll go somewhere in the 20s.
Lewis Cine, S, Georgia: His athletic testing was off the charts, his meetings have gone well and there’s still a lot of untapped potential in the third team All-American—it’d be no surprise if he winds up going before more-ballyhooed Michigan safety Daxton Hill.
Sam Howell, QB, North Carolina: I don’t think Howell goes in the first round. However, there are teams that like him enough to consider the idea of punting on a quarterback need on the first night of the draft, with a plan to go and get him in the second or third round.
That’s just a short list for now. And, of course, as we ramp up our draft coverage in the next few weeks, we’re going to give you more insight and depth on stuff like this. So stay tuned!
