Bears QB Gets One More Preseason Shot

Bears quarterback Justin Fields will get a chance to loosen his arm up one more time in preseason Saturday against the Buffalo Bills.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus on Thursday said Fields and healthy starters would play against Buffalo in the noon game.

"It's live reps," Eberflus said, explaining how Fields can benefit after sitting out last week. "It's all the things that comes with the game—the physicality of it, the speed of it.

"Even though it's preseason, it's going to be game reps. So it's important to get some of those in."

Fields went 3-for-3 with two touchdown throws against Tennessee in the preseason opener and left. He didn't play in the second preseason game.

The two touchdown passes were screen passes and he had an 11-yard completion to fullback Khari Blasingame on a swing pass.

How long Fields and starters will play is uncertain. Eberflus planned to meet later Thursday afternoon to discuss this.

Last year Fields played in the preseason finale until 3 1/2 minutes remained in the first half and went 14 of 16 for 156 yards with three touchdowns. He left after throwing a 24-yard TD pass to Cole Kmet.

Kmet, by the way, is healthy and ready to play in the game. He left Wednesday's practice but was back at practice on Thursday and caught a TD on a bootleg throw from Fields.

"He's all squared away, he's fine," Eberflus said. "There's nothing wrong there. Cole's as normal as he can be."

Still out are right tackle Darnell Mooney and most of the offensive line.

Eberflus believes whoever blocks for Fields can hold up against the pressure from Buffalo's pass rush. Bills coach Brian Daboll has said he will use his starters, as well.

Less certain is whether injured middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds would play. He has practiced this week but has been "ramping up," to being in game shape after missing almost three weeks of work.

The other big issue facing the Bears heading into this final preseason game is who will be the backup quarterback in this game. The Bears have called this an open battle now between P.J. Walker, Nathan Peterman and rookie Tyson Bagent after Bagent's big drive and Peterman's strong second half last week.

"I'm not going to answer that," Eberflus said. "That's still a competition though, as we've said all along, and we're open to that. That's exciting. And that was created. It wasn't like we created it—when I say we, the coaching staff.

"That was created by pure competition. Like I said, if you keep an open mind and you let things play out, then good things will happen. A lot of times I've seen that coaches predetermine things a lot of times and we just based it on performances and we're going to continue to do that and let the competition play itself out."

Among Bears who sat out Thursday's practice were defensive end DeMarcus Walker, guard Nate Davis, guard Teven Jenkins, safety Eddie Jackson, safety Jaquan Brisker and center Lucas Patrick.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

Add us as a preferred source on Google