Bears Express Unity Behind Their QB

With views on Justin Fields' future in Chicago seeming to change with every pass he throws or run he makes, it's a safe bet no teammates think he's done at Halas Hall after this year.

Teammates from both sides of the football jumped to his defense since Sunday's 20-17 loss to Cleveland, although it's definitely a predictable reaction to talk among fans and media about their leader being traded.

Wide receiver DJ Moore was asked about the future of the current Bears starting QB by reporters after Sunday's loss.

"You all asked me that, what, last week?" Moore told reporters, although what he was asked last week was phrased slightly different. "Somebody asked me that last week. Where you all seeing this?"

Like, everywhere?

"What makes him not the quarterback for the Chicago Bears right now?" Moore said. "I get they've got everybody coming out (in the draft), what it’s like two of them? I don’t think they’re better than Justin. So make cool."

The questions about whether Fields should be quarterback going forward next year also came to the other side of the ball and to cornerback Jaylon Johnson during his weekly WSCR AM-670 spot on the Parkins & Spiegel Show.

"He's our quarterback," Johnson told Parkins & Spiegel. "Like, we believe in Justin, we've seen Justin play at a high level. It's not like we just have a quarterback and we just see him, like, 'nah, he's not it.' Like, no. He's a guy to me that checks a lot of the boxes. We're only going to gel closer together, we're only going to defend him. We're only going to pump him up, we're only going to put what we have into him because he's our guy.

"He's the guy in the locker room, he's the guy that makes plays, he's the guy that leads us. He's the guy that takes everything on, in a sense, onto the chin. If anyone is going to step up and say it's his fault it's him. So, I mean, there's no better reason for us to go to bat with our quarterback than (with) what we have in our locker room and Justin has done for us and our team."

The Bears could have the chance to take USC's Caleb Williams No. 1 overall, if Carolina cooperates and finishes with the worst record in the league. The Bears own Carolina's pick through the DJ Moore trade earlier this year.

"I mean just overall, we know what the talks are," Johnson said. "Of course normally the No. 1 pick normally you choose a quarterback."

It doesn't mean the players want to hear about this and Johnson urges everyone to keep that to themselves and not around players.

"Like, as far as bringing that into the locker room, you all can keep that in a sense on Twitter, keep that on social media, but don't bring that to our locker room and try to project what you guys are thinking on us and trying to create a story," Johnson told Parkins & Spiegel. "We're not feeling like nothing. We're feeling like Justin is that guy."

Johnson had the two cracking up when he added some humor to it with talk about the close locker room the Bears have and sticking up for their QB.

"There's very few (players) in the locker room, that maybe shouldn't even be in the locker room, if they're going, 'oh yeah, we should take Caleb," he said. "Nah, I don't think that's how it goes. Again, our locker room is too tight-knit for any of that."

Fields, passer rating dropped greatly with Sunday's loss, a statistic altered by an interception that erroneously counts against him. A Hail Mary at halftime clearly hit the ground and was awarded to the Browns as an interception. Still, Fields' stats were not good. He has an 85.6 passer rating now, barely better than last year' 85.2, and his completion percentage took a dip to 61.4%. It's 1% better than last year.

His touchdown percentage has declined greatly since coming back from a dislocated thumb. He had been leading the league but now is at 4.7%, which is lower than last year (5.3%).

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