Justin Fields still has work to do before he can begin challenging for respect in the NFL as a quarterback. That is to be expected. He’s a rookie and all rookies require time to get their feet under them. Yet nobody can deny the 11th overall pick created his first magic moment for the Chicago Bears last Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. Everybody remembers the play. A fake jet sweep that clearly didn’t go as planned, that should’ve been crushed in the backfield, and that turned into a 22-yard scramble for a touchdown.
It was a play that had no business happening. San Francisco seemed to have it sniffed out from the start. Defensive end Arik Armstead burst upfield at the snap rather than go with the flow of the fake. Fields had to elude him, cut back the opposite direction, make three other guys miss and then weave his way along the sideline and into the end zone. It should’ve been a season-altering play. Sadly the defense ruined it by allowing a TD on the very next 49ers drive.
That didn’t discourage the coaching staff though.
In fact, there was another part of that play that had them just as excited about Fields as what eventually unfolded. Quarterback coach John DeFilippo told Adam Jahns of The Athletic about it.
“First thing I noticed was we didn’t line up correctly,” he said. “So my eyes went straight to the play clock to (see if) in that critical of a situation if we were going to have to burn a timeout or not.”
That was when the surprising happened. Fields noticed guys weren’t in their right spots so he calmly started directing traffic.
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“That was another sign of maturation by him, recognizing that we were (in the wrong formation),” DeFilippo said. “We call that first-wide vision. (It’s) everything we have before we get the ball in our hand, and I thought he did a great job of making sure not only did we get straight, but we were legal because we had to make sure everyone was set and then send the jet motion back. So there was a lot going on that I thought he did a nice job of handling.”
There is video evidence to support this. It seems like wide receiver Darnell Mooney is lined up in the wrong spot. Fields recognizes it and directs him over to the right side of the formation. Once in place and everybody is set, only then does he start the play in motion with Mooney coming on the fake jet sweep. The call itself was questionable, but the fact that the young QB made the fixes to ensure it ran properly is a sign of his maturation.
Justin Fields is figuring out how to play quarterback
While at Ohio State, he understood certain aspects of the position such as ball placement and reading coverages. However, he got away with not having to worry about directing players at the line of scrimmage and other such responsibilities. The nature of the offense he played in and his own obvious talent made up for that. Teams can’t get away with this in the NFL. Quarterbacks are required to be true field generals at this level.
That means getting guys in and out of the huddle, directing them at the line of scrimmage, reading the defense pre-snap and post-snap, adjusting protections, and knowing every route the receivers are going to run. It is a ridiculous amount of information to absorb and process. That is why there are so few actual good quarterbacks in the NFL. That Justin Fields is showing signs of this capability in his sixth start is a welcome sign.
The next step for the Bears is obvious.
Getting him into an offensive system that produces better results. It is clearer than ever this one installed by Matt Nagy and his staff is inadequate at best. Defenses are rarely fooled by it and there are too many deficiencies. Once he has a system and a play caller that know what they’re doing? This kid could flourish.
