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

Justin Fields needs to refine his aggressiveness and short-game passing

Alright, this is the final area that I believe Justin Fields needs to improve upon to continue to climb into that upper eschelon of NFL quarterbacks throughout history. There has been significant growth from Fields this season. His mechanics and footwork are things of beauty on most plays. It’s his decision-making that is lacking at times.

Over the last seven weeks, Justin Fields has averaged only 167 passing yards. That’s not good enough in today’s NFL. I don’t need him gaining 300+ yards, but he should be able to hit that 225-250 mark consistently if he’s going to become great. He needs help though and I’m not putting much blame on him for the lower passing stats.

Right now, Justin Fields has the lowest aggressiveness rating among quarterbacks who qualify. This is somewhat tied to the first area he needs to improve upon — his anticipatory throws. However, it also has to do with the fact the wide receivers are just not getting open enough for him to trust throwing the ball. According to Next Gen stats, aggressiveness for a quarterback is defined as the following:

"Aggressiveness tracks the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. AGG is shown as a % of attempts into tight windows over all passing attempts."

Without the trust factor and the ability for his receivers to separate, Fields is bound to be toward the bottom in this statistic. The offensive line not being able to hold blocks consistently is another big reason. You can see that Fields has been better overall over the last seven weeks. He has 17 touchdowns (total) and only four interceptions. He seems calmer in the pocket as of late — at least until the Falcons matchup. His completion percentage is nearly 64% over that same span too.

You can get the sense the game is slowing down for the Chicago Bears QB1. He’s been more dominant and more consistent in the back half of this season. Even so, I wish he would dump it off a little more often. Sometimes, he wants to hit the homerun ball so badly, that he neglects what the defense is giving him. He also needs to stop throwing balls off of players’ helmets.

5 Chicago Bears who need to step up to keep their jobs

The Chicago Bears are in need of talent. There are a few players who are guaranteed to lose their jobs in 2023, but these five are still fighting.

Again, Justin Fields has developed nicely over the last seven weeks. I’m not concerned about him being a bust despite what many NFL fans are still trying to declare — especially NFC North fans outside of Chicago. I fully expect him to dominate in 2023 should Ryan Poles finally add some better pass-catchers.