Chicago Bears: The key to Justin Fields starting is himself

Fields will start sooner more than later

The Chicago Bears offensive coordinator spoke on Justin Fields recently. While it is too soon to know anything, Bill Lazor had a lot to say about Fields despite not seeing him live yet. The first thing that is noticeable about Fields is that he is a passer, according to Lazor. The NFL is much different from college, and Lazor knows that. You need to be able to throw the ball. Pure running quarterbacks, unless they are Lamar Jackon or Mike Vick, don’t thrive as well in the NFL.

Lazor needs to see what Fields looks like under pressure, in and out of rhythm, and after mistakes. Those key factors will determine when Fields is ready and understanding the playbook. Bill Lazor spoke on developing Justin Fields and brought up that he needs to do whatever is best for the Chicago Bears.

To me, that says don’t rule out Fields if he is ready to go Week 1. Other things Lazor wants to see from Fields are his timing, decisions, accuracy, and the ability to adjust to change. Lazor isn’t Matt Nagy, but he did not shut down that Justin Fields could be a Week 1 starter. That does not mean that he will be, but the fact that coaches aren’t told “no” is meaning enough that the Chicago Bears will play the better starter right away. Andy Dalton will most likely get training camp practice with the ones to start. After that, anything is possible.

Something a bit off-topic, but Ryan Pace thought the likelihood that any of the quarterbacks they wanted wouldn’t be available to him. That isn’t surprising because I don’t think any of us thought he would be either. The exciting thing is that Ryan Pace had a plan going into the 2021 NFL Draft with his 20th-overall pick, but also multiple scenarios just in case something out of the blue happened.

That something happened to become the best quarterback prospect the Chicago Bears have ever had. Let us hope he works out to be more than just the best Chicago Bears quarterback ever.