Poles was blown away by some of the plays that Fields produced this season. With touchdown runs of 67, 61 and 55 yards, the second-year pro became the first NFL quarterback with three TD runs of at least 50 yards in a career, let alone one year. He also became the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era with a rushing TD in six straight games and the first quarterback to rush for at least 70 yards in five consecutive contests since at least 1950.
Fields made strides as a passer as well. After throwing for five touchdowns in his first seven starts, he passed for 12 TDs in his last eight games.
Asked where he wants to see improvement from Fields in the passing game, Poles said: “just for things to slow down mentally, and then be able to react and anticipate quicker. Obviously with that, we also have to continue to build around him so that he can do that consistently as well.”
Fields demonstrated the deep ball accuracy in 2022 that he was known for at Ohio State, completing 56-yard passes to Darnell Mooney against the Giants and Equanimeous St. Brown versus the Packers, a 49-yarder to N’Keal Harry against Green Bay and a 40-yard TD to Dante Pettis versus the Commanders.
“You think of plays like the shot to Mooney, the shot to Pettis in the corner of the end zone; those deep ball throws that we know he can make,” Poles said. “Now it’s just closing the gap and being consistent with it. And again, the beautiful thing about football is you can never point at one person and be like, ‘It’s his fault.’ No, it’s a collective where everything’s got to work together. I know and we know if we continue to grow this football team and bring in a lot of good players that everyone’s going to get better collectively.”
Fields possesses all the traits and intangibles to be great. Poles described the promising young quarterback as “resilient” and someone who “has ownership” and a “growth mindset.”
“The amount of time that he put in with the coaches to continue to get better,” Poles said, “the guy is hungry to be successful in this league.”
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