James Jones shared his opinion on all the recent Justin Fields and Jalen Hurts comparisons. He called them disrespectful, but against the Bears quarterback, not the one wearing Philly green.
Wait, what? Jones is a former Packers standout who caught passes from Aaron Rodgers. And he bantered this week with LeSean McCoy in regards to Jalen Hurts, who led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, and Justin Fields, who took his team to last place in the NFL.
McCoy was on the side of an anonymous NFL exec who described Fields as a “poor man’s Jalen Hurts.” (More on that later). But Jones gave the comments a big “excuse me.”
“It’s disrespectful to Justin Fields to compare him to Jalen Hurts,” Jones argued. “Fields’ arm talent is better. He’s faster, more explosive, his run talent is better than Hurts.. And he doesn’t have AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, that O-Line, etc.. Hurts is winning with the team. Justin Fields at the QB position is more of a talent than Hurts, I don’t care what y’all talking about.”
Now, there is a ton of buzz in regards to Fields, who is starting his third season with the Bears. Chicago selected the former Ohio State Buckeye in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Fields set all sorts of records in 2022. But the standards were for his running ability. He rushed for 1,143 yards in 15 games last season for the Bears. That’s second only to Lamar Jackson‘s season in 2019. Plus, the total reflects the NFL quarterback record Fields set when he rushed for 178 yards against the Dolphins.
Meanwhile, Fields threw for only 2,242 yards, with 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
So given all that, here’s what the NFL executive told FanBuzz in regards to Justin Fields and Jalen Hurts.
“There’s no reason why he can’t be a poor-man’s Jalen Hurts,” the exec said of Fields. “That’s the way I saw him coming out of college. I liked Hurts a little more, but I liked both of those guys in terms of their upside. I think they both have enough talent to be franchise quarterbacks, physically. Hurts has proven mentally that he can do it, which is very important. To get to the playoffs and the Super Bowl, that’s huge for a young quarterback.
“I think Fields has a chance. If you put enough talent around him, you can definitely win with him as your quarterback.”
The Bears have added weapons for Fields, including receiver D.J. Moore. So there’s a lot of chatter that this will be the Bears year. Meanwhile, Hurts and the Eagles already are there.
More must-reads: