Justin Fields Realizes Nothing Is Given
It's no small trickle.
The large number of people demanding the Bears start Justin Fields in the opener continues to grow exponentially
ESPN's Marcus Spears, and longtime Ryan Pace/Matt Nagy critic Michael Lombardi recently joined those saying Fields should start Day 1. Kevin Seifert of ESPN went them one better and said he would win offensive rookie of the year.
None of these people actually took part in the team's Zoom meetings, or witnessed how well Fields is picking up the offense using the index flash cards he has to help in memorization. Those mentioned weren't out at Bears rookie camp watching him throw passes to and against a handful of players who will never walk on an NFL field in the regular season. There were only 33 players total at this camp and the defensive players were so limited in numbers that new assistant defensive backs coach Mike Adams had to suit up in a red jersey with no helmet and take up a space at safety against the offense. So it proved little.
Yet, the calls come out for Fields to start, despite the fact the Bears head coach hasn't even seen him practice in person yet. The only practice session Nagy was able to attend due to a COVID-19 quarantine was a Sunday walk-through.
All of the opening day starting demands come based entirely on watching Fields in college or in the offseason work, and also from knowing of past Bears quarterback struggles.
None of that means a thing now.
Ohio State allowed Fields to reach this place, nothing more. Mitchell Trubisky is gone and Andy Dalton is starter. To earn an opening-day start ahead of Dalton, Fields at least needs to display some of his suspected ability to the team. This takes time.
"I think the easiest way for us to simply think about this is it'll all happen for those quarterbacks," Nagy said. "They'll all play however they're supposed to play.
"We're all going to see whatever we're supposed to see and then it's our job as evaluators of who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make the Bears the best team possible. That's it."
At rookie camp, Fields threw very few passes against a full defense, a few in seven on seven and none against a live, padded 11-man defense. The defensive backs he threw against were largely of lesser quality, although former CFL player Tre Roberson stood out with a few strong breakups and rookie Thomas Graham Jr. displayed some promise.
Calling for Fields to start now before he has even shown coaches his ability to understand the offense goes beyond putting the cart before the horse.
Here is what Nagy and coaches were able to see from him over the weekend:
"With him specifically, what I noticed was the speed when we were in our team periods, the speed on tape didn’t look too fast," Nagy said. "A lot of times, they can go, a quarterback can go to the wrong read a lot of times; the quarterback’s thinking about, 'How do I take a snap?' And get the snap and where do I step with the clock — at 4 o'clock or 6 o'clock before I fake the play-action. Where do I snap my head and not?
"All that stuff that we teach him, he did the first day fairly easily; in an easy way. That's what we look for. Are you coming back and coming back to the coach every three plays asking him to repeat the play call, because you forgot what the play call was? Or is practice going pretty rhythmically because you're going in and out on that play. He was. That's a win."
This is pretty rudimentary win.
Nagy described the presnap routine a quarterback goes through walking up to the line, checking out his offensive players' location and the opposing middle linebacker after breaking the huddle. He saw some evidence that Fields knows how to read a defense after the snap, as well.
"And I think he's done a really good job so far in what the little bit that we've seen in this rookie minicamp of doing a good job of post-snap vision, which was a strength of his in college," Nagy said. "So that's just got to continue to speed up.
"And you know he's going to get a great opportunity to do that against our defense and I think that's where we're going to have to see, OK are there a lot of mistakes being made or are there a lot of plays being made and is it natural and is it easy for him? And that's what we'll evaluate and see. And again you'll know when you watch it and we'll all feel it as coaches."
No one is entitled in the NFL. Being named starter ahead of a veteran quarterback like Dalton, who has performed all these tasks countless times, requires at the very least taking a few training camp snaps and maybe even play a preseason game or two.
Learning the actual offense is necessary, as it still will be for Dalton.
"So, like I said before, as time goes along I'll be getting more used to the playbook," Fields said. "I'll eventually know it like the back of my hand. So it's just gonna come with time."
Even Fields would tell all those clamoring for him to be starter to cool it.
"It's not up to me," Fields said. "Coach Nagy he has a set plan on my development and stuff like that. I'm just gonna work hard and keep my head down and keep grinding out there every day."
Fields very well could start the opener based on his talents, but realizes the need to prove himself first.
Fields has patience. At least it seems Fields has a better idea of what it takes to be starting quarterback in the NFL than many of those clamoring for him to start do.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
