Patience a Bottom Line for Justin Fields
All the hand-wringing and fretting throughout Bears Nation over why Justin Fields hasn't yet developed into a winning playmaker, and the thought the team will give up on him because they're losing games this year is completely absurd.
Really, it's beyond absurd. It reflects how little people have learned from generations of bad quarterbacks and coaches in Chicago. They should know better by now.
What offensive coordinator Luke Getsy had to say about Fields and his development addressed both situations, one rather directly and the other indirectly.
Getsy was asked about the comments Fields made saying he wanted Getsy or QB coach Andrew Janocko to remind him to slow down when he seems to be going too fast, particularly near a game's end. A week earlier Fields had said he uses breathing technique for this, but apparently it's not good enough for all situations.
It seems rather odd for a QB to need someone to tell him to slow down, but Getsy called it ordinary and learning how to slow down is part of the process.
"That's the experience of playing the position is the only way you get that," Getsy said. "You can't simulate what it feels like to have those guys around you, the timing and trying to read coverage, make sure you have the protection in the right way, where's your weakness in the protection, all that stuff going through your mind and being prepared for the play and going through the progression.
"You can't simulate that to that level. I really do believe that it's just gotten better and better each week and he's going to continue to grow through that. That's just getting these repetitions in practice and then getting them in the game. Trying to make practice as real as we can."
It takes time and experience. It takes more time when you're on a freshly rebuild team, one even with rebuilding to do in large quantities next year.
This isn't like Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars, who had been drafting early in Round 1 for three or four years but also had enough available cap space to overspend for average receivers in free agency.
In Getsy's mind, they are in it for the long haul with Fields and he is developing as the building continues.
Quarterbacks don't all develop as fast or as slow as each other. Even Matt Nagy told us this much.
It's easy to look at both quarterbacks the Bears could face on Monday night and ask why Mac Jones could play so effectively as a rookie and Bailey Zappe could come out of nowhere and be effective while everyone in Chicago waits for Justin Fields just to put up mid-level numbers.
The answer to this is as obvious as last year's decision to fire everyone and start all over.
The Patriots have the same coaching staff. They didn't have to rebuild an offensive line the way the Bears have. The two Patriots quarterbacks walked into a situation made for success.
Fields is with his third offense in three seasons, with a new group of coaches who are really short on experience themselves when it comes to heading a team—Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy especially.
No one is or has been down on Fields at Halas Hall outwardly, with the exception of Getsy pointing out his QB overthrew Ryan Griffin in the end zone.
Fields already had beaten himself up for this.
Justin Fields Has Moved On
Fields is ready to go now mentally, after it seemed he might blow a gasket following the Thursday night loss to Washington.
"He has been positive, upbeat," Eberflus said Saturday of Fields. "He's been executing well in the walkthroughs and in practice.
"I would say A-plus for the week, you know, from my standpoint and being in the meetings with him, working with the other players. It's been really good."
The Bears are not looking at Fields as progressing or regressing based on a couple losses here or a win or two there.
This is what's lost on so many of those who are in panic mode.
The coaches are examining every aspect of his play and realize the impact made by the lack of talent at wide receiver and the offensive line resulting from the decision to gut the roster to build a sound salary cap structure.
They're not overreacting to Fields throwing an interception on a deflection in the red zone or overthrowing his wide-open tight end.
They are seeing the ridiculous deep ball he threw for a touchdown just before being hit right in the chest by the pass rush, and they are impressed. The positives outweigh the negatives when they are that positive.
Imagine Fields playing behind an offensive line like New England's, or with some of the weapons at receiver Mac Jones has. The Patriots are not the most well-equipped passing attack but they look like the 1990s Cowboys or 1980s 49ers compared to what Fields has on his side.
Development Is Not Stats-Driven
This is all being taken into account. No one is going to take a loss to Washington, the Giants or Minnesota, or even if they lose to New England, and say Fields just isn't developing. It's time to move on.
They might if he wasn't making strides as a passer, as someone who reads defenses or panics and turns the ball over.
While Fields says he's all about wins and losses and not stats, the coaches and GM Ryan Poles know it's not about wins and losses or stats at all as he develops this season.
If it was, they'd be putting more pressure on the quarterback, or even pull him from games like Nagy did with Mitchell Trubisky, Andy Dalton and Nick Foles. They'd be throwing away perfectly good draft picks for the future to trade for some used-up receiver or one who never has amounted to anything just because he could catch one or two passes a game more than the players they have for this season. They went as far as they were willing on this by giving up a seventh-rounder in two years for N'Keal Harry.
No one is panicking at Halas Hall over Fields. No one else should.
The only ones who are do not wear football uniforms or stand on the sidelines, and they don't really matter in his development.
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Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
