Why Logic Dictates Justin Fields Sits

Analysis: There really is a difference between playing injured at 8-3 and 3-8, and Justin Fields has shown this much in his past.

Matt Eberflus has a 3-8 team facing the 6-4 Jets on Sunday and it seems rather obvious that Justin Fields should rest his injured left shoulder in such a situation.

After all, if just one week of rest will do wonders for the shoulder separation, then it should be idle now because even in a meaningless season the game with Green Bay Dec. 4 at Soldier Field carries along more significance than one against the New York Jets.

And if his shoulder needs a few weeks of rest, he can get four weeks without a hit on his shoulder for the price of resting this week and next week because the Bears are on bye the week after the Packers game. So he would be going about a month without taking a hit on it again, in the Dec. 18 game against Philadelphia.

Eberflus was asked if possibly the decision they face on Fields would be different if the Bears were 8-3 instead of 3-8.

"I don't think so with this one," Eberflus said. "I don't think it is. I think it's the same decision really."

This would seem to indicate the real decision has been made and Fields isn't healthy enough to play.

If he hasn't been healthy enough to be cleared for more than a limited practice when he isn't even being hit, then it seems fairly obvious he shouldn't be cleared to play in a full-contact game even with a pain-killing injection in the shoulder.

"You know, but I understand what you're thinking there, but I would say it's the same," Eberflus said.

The reason it is the same has to be that Fields just isn't capable of playing yet.

The decision would not be the same if Fields' injury was a bit less painful and the Bears were 8-3 and looking for a division title.

Think not? Well, Fields himself expressed the logic on Wednesday when he spoke with media at a rather odd time, after practice rather than before it.

Fields was asked about the most pain he ever played with and immediately brought up the game that Matt Nagy used to talk about all the time: the national title game for Ohio State against Alabama after he suffered cracked ribs and a hip muscle tear against Clemson in the semifinals.

"When you get a big game like that, that's the last game of the year, I've got to damn near die to not play in that one," Fields said.

So there are levels of pain to be tolerated based on level of the game's significance.

An insignificant game against an AFC opponent in a 3-8 season is not a time for subjecting the quarterback of the future to even more pain, possibly even more damage—although only his doctor would know if there's a chance of damaging the shoulder more.

Trevor Siemian would do fine facing a Jets team that he started one game for himself in 2019, before suffering an ankle injury so severe he was lost for the year.

So if there really isn't a chance Fields will play, then why the charade?

Matt Eberflus loves competitive edges. He wants any he can get.

This might sound ridiculous. After all, can the Bears really be that much more dangerous for the Jets with Fields playing than they are without him? They're 3-8 with him, not 8-3. What are they without him, 1-10? That's not much worse than 3-8.

Either way, they have no greater incentive to win the game.

Eberflus' answer about why he won't reveal more on this injury or others this year has always been "competitive advantage."

He wants the opponent knowing as little about his team as possible.

It has to be good for Bears fans to know that Eberflus is such a competitor that when they're 3-8 he is worrying about gaining an edge on his opponent of some kind.

It makes you feel good about his competitiveness for the future, after they've been able to improve their roster through free agency and the draft and are competing for something beyond winning a league game.

Then again, if Fields trots onto the field to play Sunday, it will make you wonder about Eberflus' ability to make proper decisions.

A player so clearly limited all week at practice would have no business facing the Jets on Sunday. If he does play with so little at stake, then clearly the injury is nowhere near the extent everyone has been led to believe.

It's either that, or the Bears have made a really bad choice as an organization on their head coach.

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The Line: Jets by 3 1/2

Prediction:  Jets 23, Bears 6

BearDigest Record:  8-3 straight up, 4-6-1 ATS

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