Why Bears Season Truly Belongs to Justin Fields
Amid the Halas Hall furor over Roquan Smith's departure and the trade for Chase Claypool Wednesday came one largely ignored comment far more important for the team's future.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus was asked how Claypool's acquisition impacts the ability to do an evaluation of Justin Fields.
"I think it's just the whole weapon thing," Eberflus said. get another weapon in there. Makes your offense more explosive.
"So I think it's going to be good for the evaluation."
Some real clarity from the Bears coach; it's incumbent upon Fields to do something with his new target if he wants to avoid something like what happened to Smith.
Of course, it's going to take a few games to get the two working well together as Claypool learns the offense, but obviously from what Eberflus said they want more passing yards added to the offense.
It's not as ominous or threatening as this all might sound for Fields.
Eberflus was asked a few times about how he's seen Fields' intangibles grow.
"No, I think it's great," Eberflus said. "I think it's great. The passing game is starting to come alive. I think that's because of the way we're running the ball, and the way Justin's getting better in terms of his pocket presence and feeling where he fits in the offense and just running the schemes over and over again.
"There's just a comfortable level there. You can see it in the way he's delivering the ball, his platform, how comfortable he is back there and we're just learning. And we're going to have to learn what Chase does well as we got through this but that's going to be a process, too."
So at least Eberflus indicated he's seeing progress from Fields.
They're going to need Fields and the offense to produce or there will be plenty of lopsided losses throughout the season's second half. When your schedule includes the Bills, Eagles, Vikings and Packers at home—they might be 3-5 but Aaron Rodgers still owns the Bears at Soldier Field—the defense in its stripped-down version is going to cook up more 40-burgers like last Sunday in Dallas.
It's as if they've just announced Fields must now carry the team, will show exactly what he has in the final nine games so they can have a more clear picture of which way they'll go in the NFL draft.
The last four games are extremely encouraging from this standpoint. Fields has a 97.6 passer rating, 7.91 yards per attempt, five touchdown passes and two interceptions with a 64.13 completion percentage. He has also run for almost 70 yards per game and two TDs.
Those are winning numbers in the NFL and unlike anything Fields had shown over an extended period during his first 14 starts.
Claypool may not be in the team picture for All-Pro receiver candidates as he has suggested about himself in the past, but he is far more viable as a target than anyone Fields has worked with except for Darnell Mooney. Claypool is even better than the disinterested version of Allen Robinson Fields had to work with last year.
Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis have only proven they can catch passes if they get wide open. When given chances at contested catches in recent games with passes right on the their hands, they dropped the ball. Velus Jones Jr. did this on a deep ball he should have caught against Dallas.
It's difficult to judge Fields' passing without targets.
Now, at least he has two wide receivers. He might even have three if Byron Pringle ever gets healthy again and can display just a microbe of what he's being paid for this year. N'Keal Harry might even contribute if he continues producing as he gains more knowledge of the offense. His TD catch against Dallas was an example of positive strides.
Then offensive coordinator Luke Getsy can expand his attack beyond just a phenomenal running attack, one that can be stopped rather easily by any average NFL defense with the guts to tackle David Montgomery and speed to keep up with Fields and Khalil Herbert.
Give defenses more to worry about than just the running game and the Bears could be cooking up their own 40-burgers.
Then there really would be no reason to think about a quarterback in next year's draft.
It's on Fields arm to prove it unnecessary over these final nine games.
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