Justin Fields' Debut Was Far from Perfect

There is a negative side to Justin Fields' performance against the Miami Dolphins in Saturday's 20-13 victory.

No one will want to hear it, but it's the truth. Fields must get a great deal better at being an actual quarterback instead of an athlete.

Despite talk he is "a natural," and the praise heaped on him by everyone, Fields made most of the positive plays he had in the game with his feet or with his feet first and then his arm.

The pocket became wherever he chose it to be by running there. An NFL team can't operate this way. It's an act of desperation when blocking breaks down or the quarterback waited too long with the ball to realistically think the line can contain the rush.

He'll need to become better with the offense, recognize defenses better and deliver the ball on time to receivers.

Playground football can work at times in the NFL, but as a staple it can never work because it surrenders the one key advantage the offense has over the defense and that's the receivers know where they're supposed to be and the quarterback does, as well.

Patrick Mahomes isn't good because of his legs. He's good because he knows the offense and defense and has a deadly arm from the pocket, and then combines it with an ability to go outside it and hurt opponents.

To Fields' credit, he realizes every word of this. Rather than being satisfied with rolling around and dumping it off to beat the defense, or running into the end zone, he went to the sideline not to rest but to work at improving the offense.

"He's looking at the iPads, he's talking to us, he's coming to us after every drive (saying), 'what can we do better?' and telling us what we can improve on," Bears receiver Rodney Adams said. "He's telling us what he wants us to work on so we can go back and do it during the next drive."

When Fields ran, it wasn't always instinct. Some of it was thought out, and this is a positive. It happened on his 8-yard touchdown run when he saw tight end Jesse James go stumble.

"Yeah, they were playing man coverage, my man, Jesse, he got tripped up," Fields said. "I was looking to go to him.

"Of course I know my routes were coming my way back side, but I knew they were in man coverage and knew nobody (on defense) really had me. He went to the left and saw

everybody gloved up, everybody covered, so started to run to the end zone. And, of course, it was a touchdown."

Fields recognizing this about the defense in an instant is as important as knowing a type of zone coverage when he's in the pocket. He sees a way to beat the opponent and does it.

"Especially when a team is playing man-on-man defense, that's going to put a lot of stress on because they don't know whether to come and get me or stay in their man," Fields said. "With zone teams, it's a little bit different, but man, literally you're playing backyard football."

When opponents see what Fields can do against man-to-man coverage, he can expect to get a healthy dose of zones—disguised or otherwise. They'll have their edges containing him rather than coming all out.

Then he'll need to start progressing against zone coverage and with his arm from within the pocket.

Maybe the best part of Fields' 10-for-14 debut for 142 yards with 33 rushing yards was not what he did on the field, but what he said afterward.

Justin Fields has already had a better NFL career than Dan Orlovsky.
— Andrew Lind (@AndrewMLind) August 14, 2021

"I'm just going to watch the film tonight and coach is going to watch the film and I know he's going to have a whole list of stuff for me to get better at, and I'm all about getting better," Fields said. "I want to be the best that I can be, so I'm going to do whatever I have to do be that guy."

As long as he recognizes this, Fields definitely has his priorities straight and the Bears offense can look ahead to future success.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven