3 Ways Justin Fields can continue to improve as the Chicago Bears QB

Justin Fields needs to start making more anticipatory throws

One of the biggest areas that Justin Fields needs to improve upon is his anticipatory throws. In the NFL, wide receivers are never as open as they are in college. The competition is too great. Quarterbacks have less time to throw the ball and corners are better at sticking to receivers. One way for quarterbacks to find an open receiver is by throwing the receiver open. This can be done by timing routes or anticipating where the receiver is going to be in their route while making a read. Justin Fields has struggled with this throughout the year.

His film does show that he’s improved in this area slightly, but I need to see it happen more often. As I continue to grade Justin Fields (I haven’t been able to grade his game vs Atlanta due to the Thanksgiving holiday), he has hit elite status once and just shy of it twice in the three weeks prior. Remember, these are individual game grades and even Brian Hoyer can have those from time to time. However, Fields has strung together many strong performances and that’s what sets great quarterbacks apart from good quarterbacks.

I have been talking about Fields not trusting his receivers for the last two years. He has a connection with Darnell Mooney and that’s about it. He seems to be developing a connection with Cole Kmet also. However, these two guys are not elite pass-catchers. Fields seems to hesitate on these throws and then either takes a sack, throws it away, or scrambles. He needs to start putting the ball in the air a little more often and Luke Getsy could help with some quicker reads/throws.