The Chicago Bears are in a bad spot where you cannot tell who is worse, the play-caller or the quarterback. The reality is that both are bad. Fans want the coaches fired and quarterbacks benched, but we know that will not happen, at least not until closer to December. So, what are some things that Luke Getsy can do to make life easier for Justin Fields?
3. The Chicago Bears need to utilize Justin Fields legs more
The Chicago Bears need to accept that Justin Fields is not going to develop in the pocket. He may not be the long-term future, but the team can win with him in the right circumstances. One way to help aid that is to utilize him in the running game more.
This season, the Chicago Bears have called a designed run 2.5 times per game. Last season, that number was 5.93. Early in the year, Luke Getsy had this same issue where he tried to make Fields a pocket and got away from the designed runs. Then, by week seven, something changed, and he adapted to Fields as a talent.
From week seven on, Fields had 7.56 designed runs per game. It did lead to Fields getting hurt, but the alternative is losing at this point. It is the only way to keep Fields comfortable and to help the team win.
You can tell Fields is pressing to stay in the pocket as well. His scramble rate is down from 16% to 9% this season. This shows that he is hesitant to scramble, probably because he is being coached to stay in the pocket and develop as a passer. It does not work, so get the most out of his athletic ability and figure it out from there.
2. The Chicago Bears must work play action more
This one is pretty stunning. It surely has to do with the idea that the Bears have not run the ball successfully so far this season. So, the lack of a running game has led to no play action. However, the lack of a running game is because teams are already loading up to stop the run. The Chicago Bears were the best rushing team last season, so this is the priority.
So, even if the Bears do not establish a ground game in that particular game, their reputation is established and it will cause play action to work early into games as teams gear up to defend the run early.
Justin Fields has run play action just 16.5% this season. In comparison, last year, that number is at 32.7%. Yes, the Bears ran the ball better last season, but not that should not cause the team to avoid calling play-action. This needs to change immediately, but after another poor rushing performance, it is hard to think that it will.
1. The Chicago Bears must encourage Justin Fields to throw deep
The best strength of Justin Fields are his physical traits. He is taking too many sacks and not reading the field right, but he is big, strong, fast, and can throw the football deep. His deep accuracy is arguably better than his short accuracy. That is why it is so shocking to see what the Bears have done this season.
Last year, he threw the ball deep 16% of the time; this year, the number is down to 9%. That is up this week, as the game plan was conservative the week before. Justin Fields has an average depth of target at 5.3 this year. His career rate is 9.3, and last year he was at 9.5. Right now is throwing the football over four yards shorter on average compared to his normal rates.
With the addition of D.J. Moore and with more time in this offense, the thought was that this number would crank up beyond 10. Through two weeks, it is the exact opposite. His depth of target went from 3.6 in week one to 7.6 last week. Still, this needs to go up at least two more yards on average. They need to call more plays from Fields, and they need to tell him to let it rip and quit trying to play within the system for quick plays. It may not be sustainable in the long term, but it is better than what it is happening right now.