Bears Believe in Justin Fields' Judgment

Justin Fields has shown in the past how well he overcomes injuries.

The national semifinals and finals for Ohio State come to mind, when he had hip and rib injuries.

Fields will test this again Sunday against the Green Bay Packers and the Bears will count on this ability to heal quickly as he tries to be a binding force, as long as it's not ultimately a disaster for his health.

It's difficult to believe Fields is 100% healthy and can't do further damage to a left shoulder that was separated less than two weeks ago. However, the Bears have the medical results to indicate as much and Fields has told them he's good to go.

So he starts against Green Bay.

"I mean he's done that through his career," coach Matt Eberflus said. "I think he's obviously very tough. But he knows his body. He knows when he can go, when he can't. And he feels good this week.

"But that's always a positive when a guy can go through some things. You're going to go through issues as a quarterback through the course of your career and this is just one of them that he has to go through."

The benefit for the Bears is a player who can extend drives with his legs, as long as he can avoid hits better than in the past—legal, illegal and judged legal that sure looked illegal.

They also get a mental boost at a time when it's needed. Losing starters Darnell Mooney and Eddie Jackson delivered a big kick in the gut to the team. Fields returning is an emotional charge.

"It's whenever you show grit and toughness, you can show that a lot of different ways," Eberflus said. "Quarterbacks do that through, really, staying in the pocket, being tough in there and sometimes taking hits. He's certainly done that.

"He's shown grit and toughness throughout the whole year. And his ability to come back this fast from injury and be able to go out there and play is a big boost for our offense And it shows the kind of guys that we want. We want guys that are tough, that are physical."

Eberflus called it a matter of leadership.

"When you look at the league, it's that way," Eberflus said. "The team rises up with the quarterback.

"When he performs well you rise up. I think that's just the nature of the position."

This is all well and good, but the team Fields might be playing with next year could be much different than this one. So what is the ultimate benefit to the team of allowing Fields to do this?

Many of these players will be gone in the future considering the $115 million in cap space the Bears have for next year.

There is another reason the Bears want to see Fields playing.

Eberflus calls the return of Fields important for the QB's progress. They pointed to some areas in the past week where Fields has said himself he would like to improve, like getting through his progression quicker to get the ball out to his backs if necessary.

"He knows that there's a lot ahead of him in terms of improvement," Eberflus said. "He wants to take that jump, that leap here in these next few games."

The Bears obviously would benefit on draft day more by losing the last five games.

Then again, it's possible they might all benefit by beating the Packers and Aaron Rodgers for a change.

Simply, they have to hope this is worthwhile because it seems risky to most people looking at it all from a distance—short or long.

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