Feet Don't Fail Justin Fields Now

The success of Luke Getsy's offense rests within the quarterback's footwork and Justin Fields says he has a better grasp of this in his second year working it.

Justin Fields' feet carried the Bears last year, and the expectation is they will again but in a different way.

His running meant 1,143 rushing yards last year but if they duplicate this in 2023 there will be plenty of disappointed Bears because they've worked diligently at key aspects of the passing game with Fields, with much of the emphasis on his footwork while passing.

Footwork is the key to timing in the passing game and it's here where coach Matt Eberflus expects the huge improvement for his passer going into Year 2.

"There's no teacher like experience," Eberflus said. "There just isn't. You can talk about it all you want."

The footwork in Year 1 for Fields within the Luke Getsy offense was different than the footwork when he threw in the Matt Nagy offense.

"Last year was my first year doing it, so I was just trying to get the hang of it," Fields said. "Of course, I grew throughout the year.

"But this year, I've gotten a lot more comfortable with it, just timed up with the routes better. Our whole offense is tied with my feet. I'm just trying to use my feet as the clock in my head just to move from each route in the progression."

Pass routes on plays are timed up with footwork, and Fields understands how it works within this offense better now.

"Of course, it's tough for you (media) guys to know when we're using certain footworks for routes, concepts like that," Fields said. "But I would say most of it is (connected). But if you get pressed man coverage by a corner, you might have to hang onto it just a little bit longer, just depending on what route it is."

Fields finished his offseason of work Thursday with plenty of minicamp passes in the red zone, an area he actually did well at last year largely due to tight end Cole Kmet's six red zone touchdown catches.

According to Sportradar, Fields had the best pass completion percentage in the NFL for the red zone among full-time starting QBs at 68.75% but was only 15th in the more important red zone stat of touchdown passes (12).

"You don't have as much room as you do on the field so your feet have to be ready to throw the ball and definitely tighter windows down there for sure," he said.

The offense stood out there in the final practice Thursday but coach Matt Eberflus pointed out they didn't have a rush coming during the plays.

"Those are tight throws inside there," Eberflus said. "The closer you get the tighter the throws are. So you gotta be able to put em low and away sometimes. Sometimes you gotta put em high and outside. It's really important. The accuracy down there is so important, and being on the same page as the receivers.

"Because Bobby (Tonyan) and Cole (Kmet) and Clay (Chase Claypool) and all the big receivers that we have, those guys are very valuable targets down there because they're always open, because they can use their body to stay open. That's what we need to work on."

There will be plenty more work throwing it in the red zone to all receivers and at the footwork required there and all over the field come training camp.

"You don’t get that many plays down there in the tight red zone area," Eberflus said. "So we do pay a lot of time and attention to it, as we do third downs—third down, fourth downs, those are critical downs."

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