Is Justin Fields the Answer for the Bears?
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After an offseason that brought many new faces to the Bears organization, in addition to optimism after a season that saw Chicago win just three games, the franchise seems to be at another low after their week one loss to their rival Packers. Green Bay not only come into Soldier Field and beat the Bears, but embarrassed them. Without Aaron Rodgers. Without any notable wide receivers. Green Bay shouldn’t be very good this year. Things were heading in the right direction in Chicago and they were finally supposed to be better than the Packers. But if yesterday’s game was any indication of how this season will go, that won’t be the case. And the Bears should already be asking some big questions.
Yes, I know it’s just one week. But after an offseason that brought in DJ Moore and other improvements to a team that needed many, this team should have made a jump forward. Instead, they looked exactly like their three-win self did last year. They came out flat, unmotivated, and just flat out sucked. If you can’t get up for a week one game against historic rival Green Bay in a prime time game, then maybe playing in the National Football League isn’t for you.
The Bears were bad across the board in this game. Offense, defense, and coaching (play-calling was pathetic). But as we all know, it’s the quarterback and head coach who receives the most blame after losses. They receive too much praise when things are good, and too much criticism when things are bad. But things are bad right now and heads will be facing Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus. Like I said, there were many other problems than Fields in yesterday’s game, but at the same time, Fields is a problem right now. Not the biggest problem, but a problem.
Now, it’s tough to completely assess Fields after this week’s game when he only threw four pass attempts (out of 37) for 10 or more yards. But what does that mean? Does it mean that the coaches don’t trust him to throw down the field? Or does it just mean the coaches are the most conservative coaches of all time? I don’t know, but I do know this…we still haven’t seen Fields be able to make consistent accurate passes in this league. He still hasn’t shown the ability to consistently make good reads in this league. Sure, he can run with the best of them. But that alone doesn’t make a good quarterback. He has better weapons to throw to this year, especially with DJ Moore. He has an improved offensive line (although they are far from good it seems) from last season. This is his third year in the league. With what he has around him now, if he doesn’t show significant improvement this year, then Justin Fields is NOT the guy for Chicago going into next season.
As I’ve said a few times, it is only one week into the season, therefore there is still plenty of time to show improvements. But he is going to have to show significant improvements for me to say that he is the right quarterback for Chicago. He shows flashes here and there that make you think he could be good, but then he’ll miss a few throws he should’ve easily made or make a terrible read. Sometimes you have to rely on your gut feeling, and right now my gut feeling tells me that he will forever be a mediocre quarterback. He’s got time to change that opinion, but he’s only got 16 more games to do it (because you know playoffs aren’t happening).
Garett