When comparing Justin Fields to the rest of the NFL quarterback landscape, he was off in his own world at times. Not in a good way, mind you. Many placed him among the worst in the league, citing his rampant inconsistency as a passer. What a difference a month makes. Here’s some context. After four weeks, Marc Sessler of NFL.com released his QB index rankings. Fields sat at 30th out of 32 names, trailed only by rookies Kenny Pickett and Bailey Zappe.
One month later and things changed. Sessler has long been a critic of the Bears, so it was a considerable surprise when reviewing his updated rankings. One would think Fields might be somewhere in the mid-teens after his solid run of games against New England, Dallas, and Miami. Nope. There was no hesitation here. The 23-year-old rocketed up 13 spots from 23rd all the way to 10th. He now sits ahead of Justin Herbert, Tom Brady, and Kyler Murray.
That is impressive, considering where things began.
Fields started the season nestled at the bottom of this list. The lost-puppy look has been wiped off his face as the second-year starter emerges as one of the game’s more exciting player-development tales. Chicago play-caller Luke Getsy deserves Nick Sirianni-level credit for this midseason reshaping of the Bears’ offense into the league’s nastiest ground attack, with Fields at the forefront. He’s the league’s 11th-leading rusher, having fried another victim Sunday with his 61-yard scoring blast against the Dolphins.
He’s also grown as a passer over the past few weeks. His targets are loving it, but scrambled defenses are not, forced to account for the threat of him taking off into space. Mike McDaniel quipped after the game, explaining why he told Fields to “stop it” with the footraces. “I just wanted him to stop scrambling, and it was pretty irritating ‘cause he didn’t listen at all.”
Justin Fields flipped national perception almost overnight.
His passer rating after four games was 58. Five games later, he improved that to 85. People must understand how difficult that is to do during a season for a young quarterback. Especially in a brand new offense surrounded by a mostly average-to-below-average supporting cast. Fields has 11 touchdowns and two interceptions over that span and hasn’t fumbled in two weeks. Everything is improving. If he’s this good already, it is easy to wonder how much better he might get with more help around him.
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Chicago intends to find out in the coming months. They already added Chase Claypool to the mix at wide receiver. As he gets acclimated, he should become a bigger factor in the coming weeks. Byron Pringle is due back from Injured Reserve. Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet are coming alive. Everything points to Justin Fields’ best football still being ahead of him this season.
