Poll: Justin Fields and the 2023 Bears

You may be right, and he certainly outplayed Goff. Having watched virtually every Fields snap over almost three seasons I may be prone to over-nitpick.

Please tell me you’d rather have Justin Fields than Patrick Mahomes as your QB.

That’s not what I said. The example was to point out the fact that any quarterback, even the best, can struggle or make mistakes in any given game.

I googled it to be sure, and the average length of an NFL play is FOUR SECONDS. So, a QB has to receive and secure the snap, scan for a receiver, use fancy footwork to sidestep a pass rush, and throw an accurate pass to the best choice. Granted, QBs with fancy footwork can buy more time if they are lucky, but my point is that QBs with a good offensive line have a big advantage over one with a porous offensive line, and that is exactly what Fields has had for most of his tenure. They are definitely doing a much better job than last year or the early part of this season, and it shows.

QBs who have great receivers who often demand double coverage have a better chance of finding someone open because of that, and the quality of receivers heighten the chances that a catch will be made. Add to that the quality of your OC, and it’s easy to see that there many factors that contribute to a poor passing game or great passing game that the QB really can’t control.

Justin Fields is a franchise quarterback, and the Bears should lock him up with a Watson-esque contract for the next five years, or risk going back to Trubisky-hell.

An interesting opinion, though not universally held.

Interesting you mention Trubisky, because Fields’ passing stats are actually worse than Trubisky’s after the same number of starts. Fortunately, he still has another year on his rookie deal (and yet another if the Bears choose to franchise tag him) to demonstrate that he is in fact a franchise QB deserving of a mammoth contract.

If they don’t trade him first.

From ESPN: “Justin Fields became the second fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 5,000 passing yards and 2,000 rushing yards.”

No, thanks, I don’t think I want to trade him so I can draft some totally unproven QB from the college ranks. We’ve had a plethora of those over the last, bleak, 30 years. We see how that worked out. LOL

Mitch also had a much better team around him, remember 2018? Missed advancing in the playoffs due to the double doinker? Nagy coach of the year, Pace exec of the year. That was his first year under Nagy’s system. Fields first year under this regime was a tear it down to the studs rebuild, featuring trading some of our best defensive players, zero offensive line protection, nobody to throw to. Remember Mooney trying to be a number 1 WR and how much of a failure that was? Comparing Mitch’s stats and Justin’s passing stats is misleading unless you think the team around the QB has nothing to do with the passing game.

I agree. I think Fields is a far better, not to mention more exciting, QB.

I only raised the comparison to assert that Fields is not yet a franchise QB. No one with stats like Trubisky’s can make that claim.

Daniel Jones has entered the chat.

Fields does everything slow in the passing game. Always has, always will. As mentioned in the broadcast, he needs to see the WR wide open before he pulls the trigger and then when he does decide to throw the ball is slow coming out. That’s his entire problem.

He doesn’t throw WRs open. He rarely takes a chance throwing 50-50 balls. He doesn’t execute those back shoulder throws. He doesn’t get the ball out with anticipation.

His efficiency stats tend to look solid because he doesn’t make high degree of difficulty throws, he scrambles or takes a sack. Because he’s an athlete he survives doing that. But that won’t hold up into his 30s.

He can have good games against bad defenses who blow assignments and let him scramble to move the chains when the coverage is there. But he still stares down his WRs and drops his eyes when he’s moved off his spot in the pocket. Nothing about this assessment has changed. This simply isn’t a recipe for sustained success.

I apologize. I failed to mention I cheer for the Green Bay Packers.

So the week probably couldn’t have played out any better for the Bears.

Thursday the Pats beat the Steelers. Sunday the Panthers lose again. This puts the likelihood of the Bears landing the 1OA pick at something like 98%. The Panthers basically need to finish 3-1, the Pats or Cardinals need to lose out, and the SOS needs to flip in their favor to change that. Of course the Panthers winning and the Pats/Cards losing makes the SOS flipping mathematically improbable. We can now seriously start thinking about Caleb/MHJ or another trade with the 1st overall pick. knocks wood

On Monday the Titans beat the Dolphins and the Giants beat the Packers. Sunday the Jets also won. All three wins move those teams ahead of the Bears in the tie breaker for the 5OA pick.

The Cardinals and Redskins, currently in the 3 and 4 spots, both had bye weeks. So it’s not like we missed an opportunity to lose (gain?) ground there.

Of course the Bears won. They beat the Lions. The Packers lose to the Illini’s own Tommy DeVito. The only bad break was the Vikings beating the Raiders in a total stinker. Had the Raiders pulled out that win that would have moved one more team out of a tie with the Bears in the draft rankings while also further embarrassing the Vikings. So that’s about the only thing keeping this from being a perfect weekend of football.

Since it became apparent that Carolina was likely to gift us the #1 pick, I’ve stopped rooting for the Bears to lose. I’d rather see us run the table and earn the 13th pick than lose out and maybe get #4. We’re still going to have a strong draft.

A collection of teammates, peers, coaches praising Justin Fields:

DJ Moore - "He’s a dynamic player, dynamic quarterback,” Moore said, via Marquee Sports Network’s Chris Emma. “I mean, we want him here. I’ve been having a great year with him, so that should speak volumes. I just leave what they do (in the front office) upstairs at the end of the day. He’s young. He’s going to still continue to grow and be better.”

Dan Campbell - “Listen, he’s dangerous,” Campbell said. “He’s one of these rare, dangerous players and I’ll tell you what he’s done a really good job of — from last year to this year — is if it’s a pass and he starts to move, he’s still moving with eyes down the field much more than I felt like he had previously and that’s extremely dangerous because even in Minnesota, he had two or three receivers wide open after he had kind of run, found a way through, broke contain and all of a sudden he gets an explosive pass off of it. But he is dangerous, and everything starts with him, for us defensively, and containing these guys.”

Tremayne Edmunds - “Hard worker, leader. You can see that he makes guys around him better,” Edmunds said (via Bears Wire). “He leads from the front. His work obviously speaks for itself. Just seeing him go out there every day and grow, develop, spread the ball around, just his thinking, I’m seeing it firsthand and I’m excited.”

Justin Jefferson - On @TheHerd , #Vikings WR Justin Jefferson called Justin Fields a “dominant quarterback,” and that he brings pressure to other NFC North teams.

Darius Slay had a lot of praise for him as well - Eagles’ Darius Slay calls Bears’ Justin Fields a ‘highlight reel’ – NBC Sports Chicago

Von Miller - ““I’ve got a lot of respect for Justin Fields and the things that he’s done,” said on his podcast, The Voncast. “He’s only the third quarterback in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards. He’s reading, and if it’s not there, he’s gone. And that’s what you should do. That’s what he should do, man. He’s not going to spend a lot of time back there and just let guys tee off on him and sack him. They’re playing to his skillset, and he’s a great runner.” But Miller saved the best for last. “He has all the tools to be one of the best quarterbacks ever in NFL history,” Miller said.”

That is just from a quick Google search. Here’s a USA Today article collecting 28 quotes of praise from NFL players and Coaches - Justin Fields: Bears QB getting hyped by NFL players, coaches

Justin has room for growth in a lot of areas, and he has shown tremendous growth already through his almost 3 years. His numbers have clearly improved from year to year (along with the team around him this year). Every QB in the league misses throws sometimes, every QB gets sacked sometimes, every QB holds the ball too long sometimes. Not every QB can make that laser sideline throw to Mooney that had exactly one football sized hole to get to Mooney’s hands. Not every QB can escape several almost sacks near the goal line and make it 19 yards for a first down. Not every QB can do the Aaron Rodgers offsides free play TD bomb that we’ve been burned by so many times. Justin did all of these on Sunday.

Our defense is rounding into a unit that is ranked in the top 5 over the last several games. We have won 3 of our last 4 and look like a team that can actually compete next year. Justin’s teammates love him and want him here. Justin’s opponents and opposing coaches recognize his talent and do not want to play against him. Yes sometimes he makes frustrating mistakes (so does Josh Allen, so does Patrick Mahomes), but he also makes plays that nobody else can make. Many times in history a great QB wasn’t that great in his first few years, especially on a totally rebuilding team. We’ve been waiting almost 40 years for another SuperBowl. Hitting the reset button on a total rebuild less than two years into the total rebuild is being incredibly impatient and unrealistic. That’s my opinion anyway, but at the end of the season the Bears will make their decisions on how to go forward, and I seriously doubt Ryan Poles or Kevin Warren are reading this thread for advice on that.

Find me examples of active players criticizing a peer. I’ll wait.

Especially a QB drafted in the first round.

I mean, it’s no secret that the Jets locker room was practically in open rebellion earlier this season because of Saleh’s insistence on sticking with Wilson.

So it’s your opinion, vs. all of the actual professional NFL players and coaches I cited, but I’m just supposed to take your opinion over all of them? I respect your opinion, but you seem to often state it as if it’s incontrovertible established fact. That, I find a little off-putting. This is a chat among Bears fans about our team and it’s future. Its supposed to be a friendly conversation among us fans, but it sometimes feels a bit like a facebook comment thread on a political post. If you want to just disregard and dismiss what I post, that’s fine, but it’s going to have to go both ways then.

I haven’t heard anyone say anything like these quotes about Mac Jones, Trey Lance, Bryce Young, or Zack Wilson.

It’s my opinion versus every other fan who doesn’t have a professional working relationship with the subject.

The words of players and coaches, especially teammates, to the media are worth less than nothing. Pretty sure I’m not on an island here.

Fields Stans always get way up in their feelings about any criticism. It’s something else.

If you don’t like my tone, go watch the QB School breakdown for this week’s game. Jenkins highlights a ton of failures from Fields on tape. It’s the same story of him completely ignoring wide open receivers, delivering the ball late and pulling the ball and running unnecessarily. Fortunately for him the Lions defense is awful and he’s very good at running. But still, his ability to throw from the pocket remains sub-par at best.