Jim O’Donnell: Would Harbaugh’s Falcons fix the Fields dilemma at Halas Hall?
THEY'RE STARTING TO GET a little twitchy down in Atlanta, and the vibrations could help quickly flip the muddled QB Etch-a-Sketch to “clean” in Lake Forest.
Jim Harbaugh interviewed for the Falcons head coaching job Tuesday.
If owner Arthur Blank — the co-founder of Home Depot — gives the new king of future-is-now football everything he wants, a Super Bowl Sunday jumps way up as an Atlanta possibility.
And so too would the idea of Justin Fields returning to his home state to be the revival's on-field offensive engineer.
TALK OF FIELDS TO ATLANTA has been playing out this week everywhere from Key West to Anchorage.
Harbaugh at the helm would quite possibly rush that peachy scheme closer to reality.
The Falcons need a quarterback. Fields needs a fresh start. Ryan Poles would undoubtedly relish getting Atlanta's first-round pick — No. 8 overall — to go along with the Nos. 1 and 9 the Bears already control.
OTHER POINTS TO CONSIDER:
· In the lone game he coached against Fields, Harbaugh saw brilliance. In November 2019 at Michigan, Fields threw for 4 touchdowns and 302 yards with a QB rating of 210.3 as Ohio State rolled 56-27. It would be the last time the Buckeyes beat Harbaugh.
· When Harbaugh took over San Francisco in 2011, he immediately installed a run-first offense with West Coast shading. During his four-year tenure, Harbaugh's Niners were the second-best rushing team in the NFL (8,912 yards) while finishing 44-19-1 along with three NFC title game appearances and a loss to brother John Harbaugh and the Ravens in Super Bowl 47.
Fields moves forward as an intriguing blend of talent and battle-calloused NFL wisdom. He could walk in, unholster and flourish under the pragmatic Harbaugh.
BLANK IS 81 YEARS OLD and said to be increasingly impatient since his Falcons have flailed after their meltdown seven years ago vs. New England in SB 51.
Harbaugh turned 60 on Dec. 23. He needs as quick-fix as possible a jumping back in slot in the NFL. Master James has nothing left to gain in Ann Arbor.
Fields is 24 and must feel as if his three years with the McCaskey Bears have been a sentence imposed after mean cosmic imposition by dark Lord Voldemort.
NFL planets are realigning with amazing speed this month.
Is there a midnight gain with Georgia in the next cleansing segment of the Bears?
STREET-BEATIN':
Growing concerns among Arlington Heights-area taxpayers that there will be no further substantive public hearings before a Memorandum of Understanding is agreed upon between the Bears, the village and the three impacted school districts that oversee the 326 acres that once housed Arlington Park. Tom Hayes — village president of Arlington Heights — is far too ethical to allow that to happen. …
One-time fresh prince Tony Romo has devolved into one of the most banal A-team analysts currently calling network NFL games. (If it weren't for Fox's Gabby Greg Olsen, he'd be the worst.) Romo phoned it in Monday afternoon on the Bills-Steelers wild card game. His eight-year, $136 million contract is now a funnier CBS punchline than anything Stephen Colbert and staff could generate. …
Ageless Bob Sirott — who can still find joy in “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks — recently celebrated his fourth anniversary as the bright good morning voice at WGN-AM (720). Press him hard enough and he has a dandy tale about almost landing the Cubs radio play-by-play gig back in 1995-96. …
Pat McAfee's $85 million deal with ESPN is proving to be a muscle-T albatross. As the capable Andrew Marchand has written, “He's bringing the internet to TV.” McAfee is also devaluing reasonable broadcast standards that previous ESPN managements have diligently nurtured since the web's debut in 1979. …
Lauren Jiggetts once again astounded setmates by winning the WGN-Channel 9 early morning news pool after predicting that the Bears would finish 7-10. She said father — Dan Jiggetts — knew best and gave her the projection. (D.J. himself probably got it from his remaining Jim Finks/Bob Avellini tarot cards.) …
Notably refreshing NBA TV panelists: Sam Mitchell and Shaun Powell. Mitchell, one of the most reliably hard-working presences in the history of the league, has a sneaky eloquence; Powell has long been one of the most overlooked media analysts around the association. (Plus, they're night and day from the smothering house mouse-ism of NBC Sports Chicago.) …
Most bizarre exchange of the bleak Chicago sports talk week came Tuesday morning when David “Chatty” Kaplan and apprentice shadow Jonathan Hood babbled on about kissing dead relatives. It was worse than it sounds and should make the McCaskey family and Pat Ryan Sr. very proud to have Bears games on the groveling WMVP-AM (1000). …
And senior Bulls sage Don Weiland, on the smarmy response of most media to the booing of Jerry Krause's name at the team's Ring of Fiasco last Friday night: “Don't tell fans how to fan.”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.