Mike Martz Not Impressed With Two Second-Year Quarterbacks

Not everyone is on the Justin Fields and Trey Lance train this season. 

One of the people doubtful on these two second-year quarterback’s successes is former Rams coach Mike Martz, who led the team to one Super Bowl title.

Since Martz also worked for the 49ers as an offensive coordinator in 2008 and for the Bears as an offense coordinator in 2010–11, he was asked his thoughts about the performances from the two quarterbacks during their Week 1 matchup while speaking on The 33rd Team.

Needless to say, the now-retired coach is not a big fan of either Fields nor Lance.

“I’m just shocked, shocked at the Bears,” Martz said about Fields. “I mean they took this quarterback, they went up and spent a lot to get him, and he was. ... Less than remarkable would be the kindest thing that you could say about him. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a bad performance by a quarterback in his opening performance of the season like that. He was just completely awful.”

Even though the Bears beat the 49ers 19–10 on Sunday, Fields only completed eight out of 17 pass attempts for 121 yards. He threw two touchdowns and one interception.

The win wasn’t enough for Martz to be impressed by the 23-year-old.

On the other side of the field was Lance, who recently earned the starting job over Jimmy Garoppolo. Martz has never been a big fan of Lance, who was selected No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL draft.

“He’s not particularly a good guy running with the football,” Martz said. “And, based on what I saw today, he missed two guys completely by themselves. ... I know this, he can only go up, he can only get better, because you can’t get any worse than what he did today. I’ve never liked him, I still don’t like him. 

“I’d like to know what he does so well because he’s not a great passer, doesn’t have good skills, takes him a long time to set himself and throw the football, misses easy throws, he’s not particularly a runner. Other than that, he’s a hell of a player.”

Lance’s stats finished slightly better than Fields, as he completed 13 of 28 pass attempts for 164 yards. However, he threw zero touchdowns and one interception.