Five starts into his NFL career and Justin Fields is finding out that he’s not at Ohio State anymore. The demands at the pro level are considerably higher. Such is the lesson every young quarterback must learn. However, it is different in Chicago. Bears fans are somewhat notorious for being fickle when it comes to the quarterback position. A byproduct of not having seen a truly good one play for them in a long, long time. In fact, many are already declaring Fields a lost cause after his rough outing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Something that has former quarterback Mark Sanchez baffled.
On the sports talk show Speak For Yourself, former player Emmanuel Acho was critical of the Bears rookie. He said based on first impressions, it isn’t looking good for Fields in the NFL. That the 22-year old doesn’t have many excuses to explain away his performances. That was where Sanchez drew the line. He felt the kid has plenty of excuses. Aside from his obvious inexperience, people continue to not understand just how bad the situation around him is.
Think about this.
Fields’ entire development was mismanaged from the beginning. The plan for head coach Matt Nagy was to sit the rookie most of 2021 while Andy Dalton was the starter. That is fine. However, concerns arose about his handling of this. Specifically his decision to not give Fields any meaningful reps with the #1 offense in training camp. Shouldn’t that be a good idea considering the possibility Dalton may, perhaps, get injured?
Sure enough, the veteran pulled up limping in the second game of the season from a bone bruise in his knee. In went Fields, prepared or not. Now people are surprised that he doesn’t always seem to be on the same page with guys like Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney.
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Mark Sanchez is correct about the surrounding issues
Take the offensive line. Chicago created a problem for itself from the beginning when they cut both starting tackles in Charles Leno Jr. and Bobby Massie. This was necessary due to salary cap problems. At the same time, their efforts to replace them have had mixed results. Jason Peters is a solid contributor at left tackle, at least in the running game. Germain Ifedi has been less reliable at right tackle. Now he’s injured and his primary backup, Elijah Wilkinson, is on the COVID list. To say nothing of the fact that both Bears’ draft picks Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom are recovering from injuries.
As a result, Fields has been sacked 22 times this season. People accuse him of holding the ball too long. That isn’t true either. Fields’ time to throw according to NFL Next Gen Stats is 2.78 seconds. That is faster than Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, Jameis Winston, and Lamar Jackson. All of whom have been sacked less. The Bears’ offensive line is a mess. Oh and don’t forget his receivers have now dropped 10 passes this season, tied for 4th-most in the league. Mark Sanchez is correct.
He isn’t getting any help.
What the Bears have done is basically throw him into that situation and say, “Fix it.” They’ve done little from a schematic perspective to make things easier on him aside from running the football more often. They don’t have enough play action usage or easy read throws. His line can’t block consistently. His receivers can’t catch consistently. Fields is making mistakes. Some of the criticism is fair, but to put the majority of it on him is ridiculous.