Chicago Bears: Hot takes on Justin Fields, Matt Nagy, and the trade deadline
By Evan Bruner
Chicago Bears Hot Take: Justin Fields needs to be much better
How much of the Bears’ offensive woes are on Justin Fields?
I’ve been very cautious in critiquing Justin Fields this season because I believe mistakes are a vital part of a player’s development, but just because a player is young doesn’t excuse them from bad play altogether. I don’t really care about turnover numbers too much from rookies. With the exception of Dak Prescott, I can’t think of many rookies who started 16 games that did a great job of protecting the football.
One of the biggest differences between college and the NFL is the quarterbacks can’t get away with as many mistakes due to better opposing players and coaches, and they usually have to throw a few ugly picks to adjust to that.
What I do care about is how a quarterback looks on a throw-for-throw basis. Outside of the Detroit game, we haven’t seen too many positive flashes from Fields. Even if you take out the turnovers, his overall performance so far has been pretty underwhelming. Even for rookie standards, Fields’ numbers haven’t been very good, and he ranks dead last among qualified players in QBR and passer rating.
Justin Fields needs to play better
I get that the Bears are a mess and the offensive line and coaching situations are far from ideal, but that shouldn’t exempt Fields from all criticism. Third-round pick Davis Mills is currently having a better season than Fields on the 1-6 Texans. As bad as Fields’ situation is, it’s hard to say that it’s objectively worse than the situations guys like Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, or Davis Mills are in.
Bottom line
I still have a lot of confidence in Justin Fields going forward, but he needs to play better. It’s possible to be optimistic about a player’s career outlook while simultaneously stating that the player needs to be much better going forward. Fields has the tools to fix the mistakes he’s making, and I’m hopeful we will see that in the coming weeks.