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Could Justin Fields return to Ohio State to avoid Jaguars?

By Patrick Schmidt

Dec 5, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields (1) looks to pass during the second quarter against the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 5, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields (1) looks to pass during the second quarter against the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports /
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Ohio State football quarterback Justin Fields is projected to be the No. 2 pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars but could return to Columbus.

Remember all that talk about Trevor Lawrence returning to Clemson for his senior year to avoid playing for the New York Jets?

Well, how about Justin Fields returns to Ohio State for one more year to avoid playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars?

Fields is projected to be the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft behind Lawrence who has already made clear he’ll be leaving Clemson for the NFL. The Jaguars with one win on the season are second in the NFL Draft order and with a desperate need for a franchise quarterback are likely to take Fields if he’s available.

Could Justin Fields bypass the NFL Draft and return to Ohio State?

But what if he’s not available because Fields doesn’t want to play for the Jaguars and instead wants to play one more year for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes?

It wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world for a top-rated quarterback or draft prospect to return to school for one more year. And after this truncated college football season, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Fields to want to play in front of 100,000 Buckeyes fans in Ohio Stadium and have a “normal” season before heading to the NFL.

After all, the NFL will always be there but he only has a finite time to play college football.

This isn’t what Jaguars fans want to hear. It’s certainly what Ohio State football fans want to hear.

With Fields, he would be the Heisman front-runner by a wide measure and the Buckeyes would be the prohibitive favorites to win the national championship. And then, Fields would be the clear choice to be the top pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

It’s clearly a first-world problem for Fields who can be the No. 2 pick this spring or the No. 1 pick next year, but if he doesn’t cross off all the items on his wishlist this year for Ohio State and has an aversion to playing for the Jaguars, don’t be surprised if he does what Peyton Manning, Matt Leinart and Andrew Luck did before him and spurn the NFL for one more year in college.

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