The Tough Job of Blocking for a Scrambler

Bears linemen are determined to block until the job is done, and with Justin Fields it might mean the job takes longer.

It's not simply guilt driving the Bears offensive linemen this season, although the numbers from last year say this should be at least a spur to some degree.

They've adopted a term that makes them sound a bit like Buzz Lightyear in their attempt to block for Justin Fields. They're not saying "to infinity and beyond." Rather, it's the infinity block.

"That man is very special," guard Teven Jenkins said of Fields. "He's going to stay in the pocket for six seconds, or seven seconds and break out, run. We've got to protect forever.

"That's the thing we've been preaching about in our offensive meetings or our O-line meetings, we've got to protect to infinity."

This isn't to suggest Fields holds the ball too long, as detractors like to point out. Rather, if he's holding it he could be scrambling for big yardage or buying time with his feet before throwing. 

The latter might be newer because the Bears didn't do enough of this last year, but with different receivers they might find this to be a good route to take. 

During Tuesday's practice it showed up as Fields rolled out of the pocket left and bought time against the rush before finding Chase Claypool for a touchdown. Later, he did the same with DJ Moore on the right side. 

All of this requires longer play before the whistle for linemen.

"With Justin, he's so dynamic that, like, you've just got to block forever," tackle Braxton Jones said. "So things are kind of like the same for me. When he's back there you've just got to think he can make something. He can get us out of the craziest plays."

It's personal for some of the linemen because Fields' big plays make them look good.

"I've noticed that he'll get me out of (when) it looks like it's going to be a sack or I've had a bad play there, but he's just right out the back and starts running," Jones said. "So you've just got to block forever. 

"It's kind of the same mindset wherever. f we're calling a dropback pass or anything like that, it's the same mindset everywhere."

A total of 58 sacks allowed last year, 55 of Fields, makes it apparent the task is not easy when blocking for a quarterback who might be all over the pocket at times. It was the second straight year the Bears offensive line allowed 58 sacks. 

The previous season it happened with Fields starting only 10 of the games, so it's not all on the quarterback holding the ball too long. The line needs to pass-block better.

Fields threw only 318 times last year and took the 55 sacks. That 14.7% sack ratio for Fields isn't acceptable and the linemen know it.

As far as Fields getting the ball out faster, there has been evidence of this and it can help lower the sack total. 

Jenkins believes the ball is coming out faster now, but then again, how does a lineman know when the ball is out if he's blocking?

"On the field, no, but when we're watching film, yeah, we can see that he's getting through his progressions very fast and he's getting that ball out a lot faster and it's helping us (linemen) as well," Jenkins said.

Still, Fields will be Fields and that means scrambling. With plays running longer while Fields moves around, blocking "to infinity" on plays obviously requires linemen to be in better shape. 

Maybe rookie Darnell Wright did the right thing after all when he did the running required for wide receivers in their off-season training regimen instead of the running meant for offensive linemen. Wright meant to be in shape and lost 16 pounds, but maybe not this good of shape.

It's not going to hurt.

"That's obviously a little bit more distance and less time, so that's awesome that he trained like that so he could be in better shape for sure," center Cody Whitehair said smiling, well aware it was all done by accident.

Blocking to infinity requires good conditioning. 

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