While Chicago Bears fans wait in angst for the 2021 NFL season and hope to see rookie Justin Fields take over the starting job, some analysts can’t seem to get enough attention.
Former NFL quarterback (if you can even call him that) Chris Simms began releasing his quarterback rankings last week and, when he got to number 39, most of us stopped reading. At number 40, Simms had Cleveland Browns backup Case Keenum.
At 39? It was Fields.
Just after Fields was fellow rookies Trey Lance at no. 38 and Kellen Mond at no. 37 — an incredibly odd sight to see. At 36, he ranked Marcus Mariota.
These rankings are just a few days old, but have struck quite the chord in Bears fans all over, and justifiably so.
Chicago Bears rookie Justin Fields should use this absurd analysis for easy motivation.
Remember back in 2017 when evaluating quarterback prospects, Simms was the one who questioned whether Deshaun Watson could hit a 10-yard out with consistency and even alluded to the fact that Watson could be “out of work quickly” in the NFL.
Since then, Watson has gone on to throw for over 14,500 yards and 104 touchdowns and earned three straight Pro Bowl nods. Meanwhile, Simms’ NFL “career” saw him start just 16 games, throw for a total of 3,117 yards with 12 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.
To say Simms was wrong on Watson is an understatement.
Never forget: this is also the guy who had the audacity to rank Tom Brady as his third-best quarterback of all-time and throw Joe Montana all the way down at number seven, for absolutely no logical reason.
The most annoying part of Simms’ above rankings might just be that he has Aaron Rodgers as his GOAT. The single-Super-Bowl-winning Rodgers? The greatest quarterback of all-time?
Where is Freezing Cold Takes when you need them?
Are we really going to listen to a guy who started only 23 career games and whose career spanned five seasons as primarily a backup? How can anyone take these rankings seriously.
Simms fumbled 10 times in 23 starts, for crying out loud, and he wants to talk about Fields’ “mechanics issues?”
Good grief.
Not only will Simms be wrong about Fields, he will be more wrong about Fields than he’s been about any player in his career as an analyst — a career which, by the way, has gone far better than his days as an aspiring quarterback did.
When Fields breaks every franchise passing record in the Chicago Bears’ history book seven or eight years down the road, just remember these rankings. Remember those that actually took Simms’ words with anything larger than the smallest grain of salt.
Fields as the 38th ranked quarterback in the NFL might be one of the worst pieces of analysis the sports world has ever seen.