Has Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields improved in this key area?

One area in which fans, scouts, and media all agree that Justin Fields can improve is his timing in the pocket. At times Fields can get stuck on a read for too long, or hang out in the pocket longer than recommended. This leads to him taking more sacks than usual. This is why the Chicago Bears’ loss to the Green Bay Packers was impressive.

Fields did not take a sack all game, the first time this happened. Below, you can see the pressure to sack rate of Fields by week, per PFF. This shows what percent of the time he takes a sack when he is under pressure.

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Weeks 2-4 were the worst of his season, then from week five on, he slowly was getting better. There were bumps in the road, but the last two weeks are a steep decline down to zero.

For what it is worth, this is not quite on the offensive line. Fields faced pressure Sunday. While it was a bit less than normal, he saw pressure about 31% of the time. Below you can see how often he is under pressure in orange, then how often he takes a sack under pressure in blue.

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With the exception of a few weeks, you really can sync up the sack rate with his pressure-to-sack rate. The more pressure he faces, the more likely he is to have a high pressure-to-sack rate.

Below, you can see the difference between pressure and sacks. This is the percentage of the time that he does not take a sack, despite being under pressure.

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The Chicago Bears quarterback is improving. You can see that week three was low, but he also was taking too many sacks in weeks nine and 10 as well. In weeks five and eight, he did not get sacked nearly as often.

Then, there are the last two weeks. What is important to note is that this is the best two-week run that Fields has had. In most cases, his rate shot up, then shot right back down. This time, we saw some consistency in his ability to avoid sacks.

This will obviously be a key stat to watch for the final month of the season. After the bye week, we should expect the team to be more prepared. This should mean that Fields is ready to take another step and continue to avoid sacks.

The last two games led momentum for Fields to come into the final month confident. Now, we need to see if he is showing improvement by cutting down the sack rate under pressure.