Everybody is panicking about Justin Fields’ practices thus far, which is pretty much how you know football season is getting closer. Overreacting to quarterback “struggles” is a time-honored tradition for Chicago Bears fans. That hasn’t changed. According to beat reporters, Fields had occasional issues during recent practices, throwing some interceptions and sometimes overthrowing open guys. This must mean his 2023 season is destined to fail, right? No, that is the wrong outlook to take.
One may notice something different about Fields this year if one monitors the reports. While he still holds the ball a little too long from time to time, there is increasing evidence that he’s doing something he refused to do last season. He is throwing the ball into tight windows. He was so afraid of throwing interceptions that he preferred to wait until guys were wide open or take off and run. Not this time. Now he’s choosing to trust his arm and take some chances in smaller windows. Here’s a June 13th report from Nicholas Moreano of CHGO.
“Fields also had one of his better throws on the day to Kmet. Fields completed a pass to Kmet on a corner route with Tremaine Edmunds trailing in coverage. Fields went through his progressions and laid the pass over Kmet’s shoulder. Jaquan Brisker was the nearest safety on the play, but he was unable to make a play on the accurately thrown ball.
Fields made some good throws to Dante Pettis. One completion was along the left sideline. Then Fields threw a deep ball on the right sideline to Pettis. Jaylon Johnson was in coverage, but Fields led his receiver and Pettis made a nice over-the-shoulder catch.”
This isn’t an isolated event.
Here is an update from Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago literally 24 hours later.
“Then, Fields returned to the drill and ripped off arguably his best stretch of the offseason phase.
After a quick pass to D’Onta Foreman in the flat, Fields threaded found tight end Robert Tonyan up the right seam, dropping the ball just over the outstretched hand of linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and just in front of Brisker.
On the next throw, Fields dropped back and fired a deep shot to Moore down the left sideline. Jaylon Johnson had perfect coverage with safety Elijah Hicks closing fast, but Fields dropped the ball in a spot where only Moore could catch it. The Bears’ new No. 1 receiver plucked the ball out of the air and got both feet down before stepping out of bounds.
Johnson responded by almost notching an interception on the next throw when he jumped a quick hitch by rookie Tyler Scott and batted the ball away.
Fields finished the period with another deep completion to Moore against Johnson and back-to-back completions to Velus Jones Jr. By my unofficial count, Fields went 9-for-13 during the 7-on-7 period with an interception and a dropped pass by Tonyan.”
Justin Fields isn’t even fully equipped yet.
One of his best weapons, wide receiver Darnell Mooney, hasn’t yet returned from his ankle injury that ended his 2022 season. Chase Claypool is also missing practices with nagging soft tissue problems. Despite not having two of his key targets, he’s still threading some impressive needles to guys in every single practice. It’s not always perfect. His tendency to hold the ball still shows up from time to time, but the progress is there. He is figuring out what it takes to execute at the NFL level.
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Peyton Manning said one of the toughest lessons he learned when he got to the pros was that throwing windows were much, much smaller than in college. You must get comfortable with that reality. Once you lose that fear of throwing into tight windows, your talent and preparation should take care of the rest. Justin Fields has more than enough ability to make any throw in the playbook. He’s proven it many times. It appears he is finally gaining the confidence to embrace that reality.
