Justin Fields Chicago Bears

THE JUSTIN FIELDS SITUATION

    It comes to no surprise that The 2022 Chicago Bears are off to one of their worst offensive starts in several years. But who is to blame for their lackluster performance? It seems like almost a right of passage for young and old Bears fans to always look at the Quarterback for answers when things are going bad in Chicago but what if that is why we’ve been stuck in the same position for the last 30+ years since the 15-1 1985 Super Bowl Champs. It is no secret that 2021 first-round pick QB1 Justin Fields has been off to a rough start in his career with the Bears but as fans of not only the game but the history of the Monsters Of The Midway, I believe it is our job as the voices of the franchise to not leave any stone unturned. Justin Fields is becoming a narrative and a face of blame in the city of Chicago as the Bears have fallen 2-2 on the season and haven’t made any strides offensively to be proud of. But at what point are we going to stop looking at the Quarterback and take a real good look at the product that the organization has put around them?
 
    In his first official 16 NFL games, Justin Fields has thrown 337 attempts with 193 completions with 2,341 yards, 9 Touchdowns, and 14 interceptions through the air and 567 yards off 106 carries and 3 Touchdowns running the ball. Statistically, that is not the start anybody wants to begin their career however what never gets talked about is that is typically how most quarterbacks start their careers, a perfect example is the Wyoming experiment Josh Allen in his first 16 games had a passer rating of 68.4 with 2,977 yards, 13 touchdowns and 18 interceptions yet is now one of the best talents the league has seen in years just a few years later. But unlike Josh Allen getting Stephon Diggs, Lamar Jackson is the face of the offensive scheme, Kyler Murray getting DeAndre Hopkins, and others who got reinforcements going into year 2 Justin’s situation, unfortunately, went from bad to worse as the Bears entered a full blown rebuild going into the young Qbs the second year. So far in 2022, the Chicago Bears wide receivers have the worst separation rate in all of the NFL and an offensive line that is allowing the most pressures in the league which ultimately showed on Sunday after being under pressure on 51.4% of his dropbacks against the Giants last Sunday which plays a huge role into why the QB has the fewest passing attempts in the league after 4 games at 67 attempts and 34 completions. It also doesn’t help that yet again the organization has hired another defensive-minded head coach and brought in Luke Getsy who throughout his time in the NFL has never been an offensive play caller. The key in making that transition from your typical every four-year new Bears QB to an elite, franchise QB that we haven’t had in years is simple, build around his strengths and bring in weapons for the offense to play with. As a Bears fan myself I can attest to the claim that Bears fans expect Quarterbacks to solve every issue and make an instant impact without giving them enough time to develop. I fear that because of the awkward position Fields has been put in by former General manager Ryan Pace he might have to go a few years before all of the new reinforcements arrive under new GM Ryan Poles.
 
    As mentioned earlier this isn’t the first (and likely not the last) time a Bears Quarterback has been forced to take the blame for things that remain out of his control. Even with all the recency bias surrounding the firing of former head coach Matt Nagy, let us not forget that Mitchell Trubisky quickly became the scapegoat for why the Chicago Bears offenses from 2018-2020 couldn’t succeed under Nagy. After a few years of Bears fans blaming Trubisky for the team’s offensive shortcomings, it wasn’t until Nagy’s offense couldn’t succeed with Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, former Bengals franchise QB Andy Dalton AND 11th overall pick Justin Fields to fans quickly started realizing the issue was much bigger than originally thought. Another example of this is former Bears franchise QB Jay Cutler who after having over six offensive coordinators and two head coaches in eight years was viewed as the scapegoat and someone the team couldn’t win with and the reason John Fox and the 2017 rebuild kicked off. As I’ve previously stated there is blame to go around for everybody including Justin Fields who needs to make better in-game decisions when throwing the football but it is a proven fact that the Chicago Bears fan base has put the blame on Quarterbacks for decades and don’t look at the entire board until years later when it’s too late.
 
    The ongoing sigh of relief for the organization right now is the hope of knowing that not only do we have all of our drafts picks for the 2023 NFL Draft but as currently constructed we will have over $100 Million in salary cap space to spend during the 2023 Free Agency period. The issue with that however is that will mean close to nothing if we don’t bring in top-notch offensive talent, draft accordingly and have a good understanding of what the identity of this offense is going to be going into next season. The McCaskey’s, Ryan Poles, and the entire Bears front office are currently unwilling to do what’s best for the development of Justin Fields, Free agents like Will Fuller, Odell Beckham Jr, and previous free agents in Julio Jones and Cole Beasley were all available for us to try and bring in and we stayed put. Poles are handing head coach Matt Eberflus a product and telling him to either make it work or not but nothing is going to be done to make this team better from a front office standpoint. Especially with the continuation of offensive coordinators which seems like a revolving door of underqualified individuals who don’t know how to run an offense and develop players properly. In order to truly evaluate Justin Fields, we’re going to need to see an uncharacteristic offseason by the organization which is actually putting the offense’s needs first and going from there.
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