Incredible Stat Shows Teams Have Found Justin Fields’ Kryptonite

Justin Fields had everything going his way this past week. The Chicago Bears had invested big resources in his. They added to their offensive line and stacked wide receivers. It was his second season in the same offensive system. This is when a young quarterback should take a step forward. Instead, it was more of the same against the Green Bay Packers, as they held him to 216 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception. It was the latest in a long line of bad performances against the Bears’ long-time rival.

It was also another worrying sign in another sense. Adam Jahns of The Athletic got some metrics from Tru Media Sports that revealed something staggering.

Understand that most teams don’t play that much zone during games. It’s usually a mix of zone and man. This signals a deliberate strategy by Green Bay. One, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, that they’ve been leaning into more and more over the past year.

“Something changed for Barry in how he wanted to approach Fields entering the Week 14 rematch at Soldier Field. The Packers played zone coverage on a season-high 85.2% of Fields’ drop-backs and rallied for a 28-19 win. Fields was more productive, completing 20 of 25 passes for a season-high 254 yards. He ran six times for 71 yards, a 55-yard touchdown the highlight.

It was a dramatic shift in Barry’s thinking — maybe seeing the Atlanta Falcons play zone coverage on 73.3% of Fields’ drop-backs two weeks earlier was a factor — and it worked. Fields didn’t throw for a touchdown, and the Packers intercepted two passes in the fourth quarter in zone coverage to put the game away.”

Yes, it works.

Across those three games between the Packers and Falcons, Fields threw for 623 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. Another team that played lots of zone last season? The Detroit Lions. They forced Fields to go 7-of-21 for 75 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. This is not an isolated occurrence. It’s a trend.

Justin Fields can’t adapt to the problem.

Zone defenses have many uses, but the primary one is to take away the vertical shots. By keeping two or three defensive backs deep, it forces a quarterback to find the openings in the short or intermediate zones. It requires good timing and precision. It’s been well-established by now that Fields struggles with both. He’s still a tick late on several of his reads and suffers from ongoing problems with erratic ball placement. When that is the case, the only way left to counter is with a solid running game. The Bears couldn’t do that Sunday, and they paid the price.

The question now is whether Justin Fields can get over this problem or if it’s who he is at this point. He isn’t the first gifted quarterback to get undone by zone defenses. Derek Carr has struggled against them for most of his career. So has Baker Mayfield. The NFL is a copycat league. Now that they’re aware Fields struggles against zone, that is basically all they’re going to play moving forward until he either learns to beat it or ends up losing his job. It will be interesting to see what adjustments the Bears make for Tampa Bay.