Felger & Mazz: The Patriots should trade for Justin Fields
As things stand today, the biggest question mark on the New England Patriots roster is their quarterback. With the expectation that the Patriots will take a quarterback with the 3rd overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Felger and Mazz discuss the idea of trading for current Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields as a bridge option so that the quarterback they draft can learn under Fields.
Should the Patriots trade for Justin Fields?
Mazz: I would take a quarterback, yes. It could be Jayden Daniels. It could be anybody else. But to me the part that they have to do is trade for Justin Fields because the the quarterback “lottery” is a freaking crapshoot, as you have pointed out. So you want to tell me, whoever you are, whether you want Jayden Daniels, whether you want Michael Penix, whether you want Bo Nix, if you want one of those guys, Fine. Whatever. You still have to trade for Justin Fields. The idea that the Patriots are going to go into this and do what every other bad team does at the top of the draft, and just take a quarterback is really kind of stupid. It’s asinine. So now you want to add that to something, which to me is what you should do, you want to be different? Trade for Justin Fields, who is the perfect fit here for so many different reasons. Start there. Bring Fields in. He’s on a short contract for this year, he’s got a fifth year option, which you may or may not have access to, depending on when you execute the deal. So you then have the option of keeping him if you want to keep him for another year. If you don’t and he sucks, you can let him go while you’re developing another quarterback. If he has a good year, you can then franchise him or work out a new deal. If he doesn’t want to stay, you can franchise him and trade him. All these options exist. And again, it doesn’t have to be Jayden Daniels at number three. You could take him in the second round. Third round. I don’t care. But you should have another quarterback the chamber that you are developing and will have ready to go for 2025.
Felger: I co-sign. I co-sign. I do, except I think I’m passing on Jayden Daniels too. And the other sort of bridge quarterbacks that you talk about, whether it be Kirk Cousins or Jimmy Garoppolo or Jacoby Brissett or Baker Mayfield, all those guys, I think their ceilings have been realized. I mean I think we saw Baker Mayfield’s ceiling this year. Yeah. And it’s good. Like it’s pretty good. I would take Baker Mayfield. I think Justin Fields has more upside than that. He’s not there, but if you can tap into it, you got something there. So you get a former 12th overall pick for the 34th pick or the whatever 65th pick, and he’s still got some upside and he’s shown something, and I know he’s had a lot of struggles, but he’s also had some pretty good games. And if you focus up like the one he played here, you focus on that game and you try and get him to that level, I feel so much better than that. Then putting all your eggs in the basket of Jayden Daniels, who is going to have to learn the passing game, or Caleb Williams who again, there’s reports out that you really got to question that. The one caveat to me is is Drake Maye if he’s really a pure passer and he really, really projects as a passer in the NFL, I could be convinced on him. I could change my mind for him. But a project like Jayden Daniels or a real risk in Caleb Williams. I’m sorry. I’m going in on Justin Fields.