What Justin Fields loses at Chicago Bears training camp

The injuries to Byron Pringle and Lucas Patrick appear to be minor. Patrick has a finger injury, while Pringle is nursing a quad. The report on both is that they are expected to be back by week one, but it is unlikely either is back before then. While training camp is not the most essential part of the season, these two are injuries are going to weigh on the Chicago Bears, particularly Justin Fields.

The Bears did not do much this offseason despite having obvious holes at wide receiver and offensive line. Pringle and Patrick became the biggest names in each area. With Patrick, it was a chance for Justin Fields to have a starting center who was under 26 years old, knew the offense, and could grow into a starting role with Fields.

Now, Patrick and Fields barely got any work together before they step onto the field in week one. For Pringle, he was supposed to be the reliable secondary pass-catching option. A chain mover and a red zone target need to have chemistry and be relied on by Justin Fields.

Fields and Pringle got some time to work together but a few drives in the preseason where Fields would have to break off a progression and find Pringle on the same page to move the sticks would be valuable.

With neither missing significant time, the group should gain that chemistry, and it could come fast when real games start. Still, instead of going into week one with weeks of work on a new offense with fresh faces, it will still be a very new week, and it will take weeks to gel with Patrick and Pringle.

Neither signing was a big name, but both signings were significant to the progress of Justin Fields. To see both situations stall out for a few weeks has to be frustrating as Fields now works with names like Sam Mustipher, Doug Kramer, and Chris Finke instead.