Justin Fields had three up-and-down years for the Chicago Bears. Not all of it was his fault. He had the bad luck of arriving at a time when the team was in the middle of a down cycle, forced to rebuild after peaking in 2018. He wasn’t always surrounded by the best roster or coaching. That said, he was also a victim of his own mistakes. For all of his athletic brilliance, Fields never quite mastered playing quarterback in the traditional sense. His pocket presence was questionable, his operation slow, and his ball security sloppy.
Though he seemed to finish 2023 on a strong note, it wasn’t enough to convince the Bears they should bypass a quarterback at #1 overall for the second year in a row. So they traded him to Pittsburgh for a 6th round pick, then selected Caleb Williams in the draft. It sounded like Fields was gaining some traction with the Steelers, looking sharp in practice. Unfortunately, he followed this with two fumbles and two sacks in his first preseason outing. Former linebacker and ESPN analyst Bart Scott has seen enough. He’s seen this before from a former teammate, and it isn’t somebody you want to be compared to.
“This guy continuously burps the baby. I hate for my friend Tim Tebow to take strays, but that reminds me of Tim Tebow in practice. You just can’t do that. When a play breaks down, you burp the baby like that. You put the offensive tackles in a bind. Guys give up sacks and they’re losing their career basically because you’re burping the baby back there.
It reminds me of Tim Tebow. We talk about burping the baby and how long it takes you to process. Waiting until a receiver’s open in the NFL, you have to throw the receivers open in anticipation. He doesn’t throw in process with great anticipation, which causes his offensive line protection to break down, which causes him to kind of scatter within the pocket.
Ball security, job security, 38 fumbles since entering the NFL, it’s five more than any other player. It’s not acceptable.”
Justin Fields being compared to Tim Tebow is rough.
Everybody knows the former Heisman winner was a bust in the NFL. He ran into the same problem Fields has, but on a much worse scale. He never learned to process defenses and become a reliable pocket passer. He was a running back who happened to throw the ball well enough to keep defenses honest in college. That and his outstanding leadership are why he won two national championships and even a playoff game in 2011. Scott didn’t have to go that low with his comparison, but the point is at least clear.
He doesn’t think Justin Fields has the ability to distribute or protect the football at a high enough level to be anything more than a backup in the NFL, just like Tebow. The good news is that Fields is a better passer than the retired QB. He’s proven he can at least beat teams with his arm when the conditions are right. The problem has always been that conditions are rarely perfect. When they aren’t, Justin makes mistakes. Tebow was the same way, fair or not.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
