One Bears Opportunity Missed
At 2021 season's end, the outcry about how Matt Nagy refused to adapt his offense for Justin Fields' abilities reverberated throughout Bears Nation.
It's probably true to a large extent. The offense of Nagy and Bill Lazor rarely used Fields rolling out or on planned runs—or at least well-designed runs.
Like many rookie quarterbacks, Fields seemed uneasy in the pocket. He didn't exit the pocket in the right place or time.
A year later, it's possible the exact opposite happened under Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy.
They went too far with the running for too long, and in the process they may have missed a golden opportunity rarely afforded coaches.
Just before the final game, Eberflus was asked about what he's learned working with Fields for a year.
"I just learned that he is an amazing athlete," Eberflus said. "He really is. He can really lead this team. He's done that. He's certainly developing. We know that. He's going to continue to develop as we go."
Eberflus did not mention Fields' passing as a great quality and neither did GM Ryan Poles.
It's apparent Fields hasn't developed as a passer to the extent of many other quarterbacks after two seasons, but he's not so far away it can't be made up. In some statistical categories, he's actually a bit ahead of some contemporaries in passing production.
QB Comparison
After 2 years
| QB | Attempts/Completion Percentage | Yards | TDs/INTs | Yards/Att | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Justin Fields | 588/59.7% | 4,112 | 24/21 | 7.0 | 79.7 |
Josh Allen | 781/56.3% | 5,163 | 30/21 | 6.6 | 78.2 |
Jalen Hurts | 580/59.0% | 4,205 | 22/13 | 7.3 | 84.7 |
Tua Tagovailoa | 678/66.2% | 4,467 | 27/15 | 6.6 | 88.8 |
Daniel Jones | 907/62.2% | 5,970 | 35/22 | 6.6 | 84.1 |
Kyler Murray | 1,100/65.8% | 7,693 | 46/24 | 7.0 | 90.9 |
Joe Burrow | 924/68.1% | 7,299 | 47/19 | 7.9 | 100.2 |
Trevor Lawrence | 1,186/62.9% | 7,754 | 37/25 | 6.5 | 83.4 |
Mac Jones | 963/66.4% | 6,798 | 36/24 | 7.1 | 89.0 |
His passing numbers are comparable for two seasons to Jalen Hurts, better in terms of passer rating and yards-per-attempt than Josh Allen, and better in yards per attempt than Tua Tagovailoa, Daniel Jones and Trevor Lawrence.
Where Fields has fallen behind many of the young passers is simply getting to throw the ball and it's because he's been used extensively on planned runs or has scrambled when pass blocking broke down instead of hanging onto the ball behind the line to look for receivers.
In both cases, the Bears failed him to an extent because he doesn't have the receivers and the pass blocking was partly responsible for a league-high 55 sacks.
What the coaches could control were his planned runs. According to NFLGSIS.com, Fields had 68 scrambles and 92 rushing attempts that were designed runs.
It's the reason Eberflus can say Fields' athletic ability is amazing, but says he has to "develop."
BEARS FINAL REPORT CARD FOR 2022
During the season, the Bears went through a period when Fields was throwing it more and not running as much. He averaged 19.2 passes for his first six games, 22.5 for the last nine. He ran nine times a game in the first six and ran 11.8 times over the last nine.
The changed approach occurred right after the Bears played Washington, when Getsy rebooted the attack for more Fields running. It wasn't a huge amount but did take passes away from Fields in favor of more runs.
This was a move universally applauded at the time, but now it doesn't look as wise because it took passing attempts away from Fields when he needed to develop as a passer.
BEARS HAVE ABILITY TO WIN DIVISION NEXT YEAR AND HERE'S PROOF
Getsy explained during the final week of the season where Fields' game and the offense must go. It's toward more balance, not more running.
"I begin to evaluate how we can grow as a team and where we need to go," he said. "That balance has to happen, yes. I think that to be sustainably good, you have to have more balance. That's real. We know that.
"But we look at each individual on our team, and we say, 'what's the best way for us to win a game?' We're going to take that approach every single week as long as I'm here."
So there it is. The old dilemma facing coaches rises to the top. They want to develop players but they need to win the game that week and do everything possible to get the win. It's coaching instinct, and in this case more Matt Eberflus' decision than Getsy's because he wanted changes made at the mini-bye to better reflect Fields' proven skills.
It was a mistake.
The first year of a coaching regime is a gimme. Coaches can do what they need to do for the sake of development over winning games.
This was not the case in 2022 for the Bears. Even after the season, GM Ryan Poles was talking about all the positives he saw despite the record and even said to set the wins and losses aside for a moment. When a GM is doing this, it's a free pass.
Once the Bears were 3-7 and it was apparent they were going nowhere—even though it should have been long before that point—then the shift should have been made to forget or downplay planned runs and get Fields as many passes as possible
The Bears only won one of their final 11 games. Quarterback runs served no purpose during this stretch. Fields' total passes should be much higher and his development a little greater heading to 2023.
It would have been an excellent time for them to simply use the passing game, forget letting him run and focus on development.
The 2022 season should have been all about Fields developing as a passer. While this happened to some extent, opportunity was lost to achieve it to a great extent because of a perceived need for meaningless wins.
It was more of an instinctive coaching reaction than anything.
When the Bears return to work in the spring, they'll have more opportunities to make the passing game a top priority.
By then, it's possible Fields will finally have more help with blocking and receiving to make his development go faster.
But consider how much further ahead he'd be if they merely changed the focus from meaningless wins to QB development when they had the chance.
Because in Year 2 it naturally becomes more about wins.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
