The Chicago Bears cannot escape the ghost of Mitch Trubisky. The humor that comes from FanSided’s post-Week 3 quarterback rankings basically writes itself. Just how bad is this franchise that its current quarterback, Justin Fields, comes in ranked 31 out of 32, but the guy he replaced who is now onto his third team is ranked 32nd?
Are you laughing or are you crying? I find that at times, it’s best to just laugh in regards to this team. I mean, they haven’t been consistently relevant since the firing of the head coach they just beat in Week 3. A head coach who is 0-3 vs. the Bears since his departure in 2013. Of course, I’m talking about Lovie Smith. To be honest, even those teams weren’t great and it we’d have to go back to the 1990s — before Brett Favre was traded to Green Bay — to see a time when the Bears weren’t the little brother to the Green Bay Packers.
Here’s the thing. I don’t believe Mitch Trubisky should be ranked below Justin Fields at this point. Trubisky has been far better this season than Fields. Seeing Trubisky here makes me think FanSided is stat watching more than watching his games, but I’m done defending him now that he’s a Steeler. That said, even Fields knows he played like trash last week — he’s not making excuses.
Did FanSided rank Chicago Bears quarterback, Justin Fields correctly?
When we move up from the bottom of the rankings we see names like Joe Flacco (who is elite by the way…wink…wink), Cooper Rush, Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith, Jacoby Brissett and so on. I am not going to try and say Fields has played better at this point this year, but I will argue that he is better than every one of those names.
What’s my evidence? Well, he’s a sophomore quarterback with only 13 starts. That’s not even a full season. He’s also learning a new offense as he enters year two with a different offensive coordinator and head coach. Trevor Lawrence is flourishing in Jacksonville despite also learning a new system in year two. However, he’s now started 20 games and the Jaguars brought in more offensive help than the Chicago Bears did this year.
The Chicago Bears are talking about practice…not a game…practice
Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears defended Lucas Patrick starting over Teven Jenkins in Week 3 vs. the Texans because of a bad Wednesday practice.
I’ve seen enough from Fields to know he has a ceiling unlike any of these others. The problem is, I’m basing my rankings on where I project Fields to finish. That’s the bias in me. FanSided is basing their opinions on what they’ve seen from Fields this season and from an on-the-field perspective, it’s very difficult to argue against the ranking. Let’s hope that Justin Fields starts to put some starts together that reflect where I see him as a player. If he does, expect him to climb these rankings faster than it took Urban Meyer to be fired.