Adapting to Justin Fields

The focus of Bears offensive coaches with Justin Fields now is getting him to understand the offense and then NFL defenses.

When it's time for Fields to play, the focus shifts instead to how the offense adjusts to him rather than how Fields adjusts to the offense.

Fields obviously is not the same quarterback the Bears have in Andy Dalton or Nick Foles.

Besides his mobility, there is much greater arm strength.

"So, on tape I think it's one of his greatest strengths that he has — being able to have that accurate deep ball," coach Matt Nagy said.

Nagy recalled a particular deep pass at the quarterback's second pro day. Fields rolled right and threw deep with deadly accuracy.

"I think that's one of his better things that he does," Nagy said. "And that's something that we want to be able to use as much as possible."

It's just one example of different skills and it will mean adjusting the Bears offense and approach when Fields is taking snaps. Here's how the Bears need to bend their attack to fit Fields when he plays rather than the other way around.

1. Put the R back in RPO

The RPO (run-pass option) should have included zone read quarterback runs by Mitchell Trubisky, but he never really fully utilized his running skills with this aspect of the Bears offense. His running yards came almost entirely on scrambles, running it out of a bootleg or sometimes on designed QB sweeps. The longer he played in Chicago, the fewer scrambles Trubisky had because he said he wanted to be a quarterback who used his feet to buy time so he could throw.
Only on very rare occasions did Trubisky keep the ball and burn a defensive end overcommitting against the RPO to the running back. Fields' 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash is much better than Trubisky's and he has a real knack for making the first tackler breaking free on defense miss. Fields freezes on-rushing linebackers or linemen with fakes. There are always injury fears about quarterbacks running but if used judiciously instead of the way Washington used Robert Griffin III, Fields could bring the attack another dimension for keeping the chains moving.

Neither Dalton nor Foles are keeping the ball out of the RPO.

It becomes run by the back or pass. It goes from a dual-threat attack to a triple-threat attack with Fields, and the RPO attack was a part of the Ohio State offense so it's something he is more familiar with than other aspects of Chicago's attack.

2. The scramble drill

A significant portion of training camp and practices in the regular season need to include the scramble drill. This is when receivers move to different spots or come back to the quarterback after he leaves the pocket to the left or right and they've run through their initial routes. In some cases, it might mean receivers turning and going deep instead of back to the quarterback.

The Bears always said they had a scramble drill for when Trubisky scrambled. It didn't look like it in games.

There are scramble drills, and then there are scramble drills like the Packers have used with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. The Bears need to actually get more in line with what Rodgers and his receivers do once he starts moving out of the pocket and the initial pass routes have broken down. They need to practice it plenty.

Patrick Mahomes didn't run the 40-yard dash well. He ran 4.8. But he has quick feet and the Chiefs run plenty of scramble drills because of how Mahomes can buy time with his feet before throwing.

Fields often completed passes at Ohio State after moving or sliding out of the pocket, and with his receivers moving off their initial routes. The Bears have to practice this and practice it — to borrow a phrase from Bears offensive line coach Juan Castillo — "...over and over and over."

Matt Nagy may not like spending time on it because it's pure athletic and ad-lib ability responsible for the yards rather than his beautifully designed plays. However, it's an ability wasted if they don't get the scramble drill down when they have someone of Fields' talents.

With a quarterback of Fields' arm strength and footspeed, the Bears need to have one or more receivers take off upfield on scrambles because his arm strength makes it far more likely the ball can go 40 or 50 yards downfield than with other quarterbacks they've ever had.

3. Run more outside zone plays

When the Bears succeeded last year with Trubisky at quarterback down the stretch, they went to more outside zone blocking schemes on running plays with bootleg action in the backfield on passes. It looked like the old Mike Shanahan offense.

They will not be using this much when Dalton takes over as quarterback. They'll be in the shotgun, using inside zone run blocking. Neither Dalton nor Foles can run bootlegs effectively, so there's no point throwing this action or outside zone blocking into the attack.

Last year the line struggled to block the run using inside zone. It must be pointed out that when the line ran outside zone scheme better last year it came against far weaker defensive opponents. They won't have that benefit as much this year.

With Fields, they need to leave this as a real tool in the offense. His quickness should make the bootleg action very easy to execute. The bootleg puts the quarterback outside and he only needs to read half the field, which should make it easier on an inexperienced passer. And Fields' big arm makes it possible for the deepest routes to come open on those plays, which isn't always the case with some quarterbacks who use this.

The other benefit, of course, is it lets the offensive line block in a scheme they excelled at last year.

4. Put the Z receiver in play

The outside receiver on the right side of formations often runs deeper routes and is the fastest pass catcher. However, when the Bears haven't had someone who can consistently get them the ball downfield the tendency is for these Z receivers to anticipate not getting it. The quarterback is always looking for the X receiver on the other side, the backs and tight ends in the middle or the slot.

Fields is going to let it fly. Those Z receivers — Darnell Mooney, Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd — have to be ready.

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