3 differences in Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields play since returning from injury

1. The Chicago Bears are seeing Justin Fields run more 

One thing it felt like fans always knew, but the Chicago Bears refused to do was use Justin Fields’ legs to get the most out of him. Before his injury, they were still leaning toward being conservative, but recently, they have dialed it back up, and they have won more games because of this. 

Justin Fields was averaging 7.8 rushes for 39.5 yards per game before his injury. That is up to 11.6 rushes for 69.6 yards per game. He is scrambling more and getting more designed run calls. 

Justin Fields had an 8% scramble rate in the first part of the season, but that has jumped to 11%. Also, the Chicago Bears went from calling a designed run 20% of the time to 26% of the time since his injury. So, overall, the Bears are seeing Fields run on 9% more of his dropbacks, both scrambles and designed runs included. 

This has obviously worked. The Bears rushing attack was dominant against Arizona, and they were able to lean on it to put a game away. 

The question with Fields is whether this has long-term stability or not. Can an offense function with such a running quarterback, even while his passing stats are down a bit? Will Fields eventually get hurt again? Does the Chicago Bears use Fields like this signal that they are not as worried about his long-term stability and are just getting what they can out of him for the time being? Is this telling of their offseason plans? We will find out soon.