People have spent weeks now trying to figure out what is going on with Justin Fields. It has fallen into two camps. Either he’s got terrible support from the other players on the Chicago Bears offense, or he hasn’t played well enough. The reality, as is often the case, falls somewhere in between. It’s true the Bears offensive line and wide receivers haven’t been overly helpful to start the season. Too many missed blocks or dropped passes. At the same time, Fields continues to make things harder on himself in two key ways.
The first and most well-documented is his tendency to hold the ball when his first read is covered. His ability to process and make quick decisions remains below average through the first 16 starts of his career. This has led to him absorbing several unnecessary hits and sacks. His inability/unwillingness to hit the layups is far less talked about. The passes that should be far easier completions.
Credit to Robert Schmitz of Windy City Gridiron for finding this. So far in 2022, Fields has completed 23 passes of 10 yards or more. Conversely, he has completed only 21 passes between nine yards and the line of scrimmage. To understand how wild this is, here is Buffalo Bills star Josh Allen by comparison.
- 0-9 yards – 85 completions
- 10+ yards – 45 completions
Allen has arguably the most gifted arm in the NFL, but his ability to string the shorter throws together makes him so much harder to stop. That hasn’t been the case with Fields. His completion percentage on throws between 0-9 yards is 56.75. That isn’t good.
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Through 6 games #Bears Justin Fields has more completions of 10+ yards than completions of 10 yards or less.
That’s… well I’ve certainly never seen that before! Have you?
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) October 18, 2022
Justin Fields makes sustaining drives hard because of this.
You might be surprised how many times the Bears have had to punt this season after he fails to complete a pass within ten yards of the line of scrimmage. Don’t believe it? Check this out.
- 1-3 yards to go for a first down: 4-of-7
- 4-6 yards to go for a first down: 8-of-21
When it is 3rd down and somewhere between four and nine yards to go, Justin Fields has a 47.62 completion percentage. There is no way somebody can blame that entirely on the receivers being bad. The harsh reality is the quarterback isn’t doing a good enough job making the easier throws. He’s the antithesis of Mitch Trubisky, which isn’t any better. In fact, it might even be worse. While Fields is good each week for two or three long throws, it is mitigated by his inability to sustain or finish drives.
Defenses have already begun to figure out how to handle him. Play Cover 2 or Quarters to prevent big plays and force him to work his way down the field. He can’t do it. Not consistently. Until that changes, this is where the Bears’ passing game is at.
Justin Fields definitely needs to process faster, release faster and go thru at least 3 reads consistently. That being said I don’t think you can judge his play as of yet based on 2 god awful stats. The Bears have the highest rate of pressure allowed per drop back and they have the lowest WR separation in the league. Those 2 things are an absolute recipe for disaster. I don’t care what QB you want to put into that situation they are not doing well.
@ Sam K – When we are using Josh Allen as a comparison, it’s not to say Justin will morph into Josh. We are simply comparing where Josh was at the same time in his career. Their numbers are eerily similar. What is being said about Justin are the same things that were being said about Josh and it finally clicked. The same can be said about many other QBs in their first 2-3 years that turned out to be ok. Peyton Manning comes to mind, hell, it took his brother 5 years to come into his own. In Justin’s… Read more »
Throw this non-sense comparison with Josh Allen away. He has no where near his skill set and never will.
Right now lets keep it real ; his comparable with like Davis Mills or Jacoby Brissett; and both of them have better numbers.
Can we quit blaming everyone else coaches and the entire roster. Numbers don’t lie ; he sucks right now. And we will see if he improves. Next year are we going to blame the next new offensive coordinator ; they;r not throwing the ball
Everyone who follows the Bears and Fields already knew this fact. Also, there is a third “camp” of opinions, and more talking heads are speaking about it…that is, they have a total rookie staff at the four key positions, GM. HC DC, and Getsy as the OC. The Besars went, once again, on the cheap. People forget that Getsy was a passing advisor for Rodgers. and he was often criticized for not using his TE’s.
Every damn game is a referendum on JF1. The difference in perception and storyline is razor thin. Imagine a world where Herbert gets into the end zone, VJ doesn’t fumble, or Mooney pulls in the game winner. Bears are are 3-3 and everyone is saying something completely different about Justin. He has limitations but he also puts a lot of winning plays on the field too. If this team somehow had a winning record JF1 would be an MVP candidate. He isn’t good enough to do that plain and simple. The Bears are a below average TEAM. Their results and… Read more »