Moving on is something Chicago Bears fans always seem to struggle with. Justin Fields had a divisive three-year stint with the organization. Some of it was good. A lot of it was bad. Many remained adamant that the former 11th overall pick never got a fair chance in Chicago. He was just starting to get things going at the end of last season when GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus decided to pull the plug. They traded Fields to Pittsburgh for a conditional pick, then took Caleb Williams first overall last April.
Three games into the 2024 season and fans are already at war. Fields has gone 3-0 as a starter for the Steelers. Williams has shown progress the past couple of weeks but is sitting at 1-2. Already people are saying the Bears made a huge mistake. Fields is obviously a better quarterback. Now he’s proving it. Adam Hoge of CHGO finally reached his breaking point after hearing all of this. He went in guns blazing on the debate, making it clear things have gone way off the rails.
Justin Fields is winning, but he’s still the same QB.
Through the first three games, he has averaged 172 yards passing with two touchdowns and one interception. The key difference is a higher completion percentage (73.33) than normal. He’s also been sacked six times and hasn’t been as dangerous of a rushing threat. Everybody is eager to hand him his flower, failing to acknowledge the Steelers defense is #1 in both points and yards allowed. It is great to see Justin Fields having team success after those frustrating years in Chicago, but people need to stop acting like he’s the main reason.
Meanwhile, Williams passed for 363 yards on Sunday against Indianapolis. It was his third career game. Fields has topped 300 yards once in his four seasons, and that was last October, his 38th career game. It is already evident the rookie is a more natural pocket passer than his predecessor ever was. Future success for him is impossible to predict, but to say the Bears made a bad call is neither accurate nor fair.
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@robmac The problem with your comment is that Fields was instrumental in Chicago’s dominant run game.
Replace a QB1 who was a giant plus on the ground with one who is not, and, yeah, the run game is gonna suffer. Caleb is here to throw the ball 50 times per game and the run game isn’t going to get better by Waldron or anyone else standing around and hoping real hard for it to get better.
This was a deliberate choice that Poles made and we’re all collectively seeing the consequences as they play out every week.
Lambert, you’re such a hypocrite. You we’re doing a thank goodness we traded Fields post weekly during camp when reports were saying that he’s struggling. The second Fields starts finding success, those articles are nonexistent and its now “neither accurate nor fair” to compare him to Williams (just fyi for those who will say I’m a Fields stand, I like Caleb Williams). “Justin Fields is winning, but he’s still the same QB”… last I checked, one of Fields biggest issues in Chi was 4Q turnovers. He’s the number one ranked 4Q QB this season and averaging over 70% completion. Fields… Read more »
Here, in my opinion, is the debate. We all know what the squad looks like with 1.01 having been spent on Caleb. That pick was the most valuable draft asset in the history of professional sports and, while I hope things turn around and I sincerely think they will (it literally cannot get any worse, lol), the early return is a disaster. An alternative 2024 Bears squad looks something like this. Fields is QB1. This means, at minimum, the run game hasn’t fallen off a cliff. We’ll never know how he may have progressed, but Fields was elite last year… Read more »
Justin Fields is not the same QB, and the Bears bootlcker’s and Bears local Chicago talking heads want to spin it to keep us in doo-doo land. He is receiving tier one NFL coaching – something he didn’t get in Chicago, not even close. Often, he is measured by passing yards per game. Anyone who has played or coached in the NFL know that stat is a crock – otherwise, Dan Fouts, Philip Rivers, Jeff George, would all have appearances in more than a combined total of zero suit-up’s for Super Bowls. It is all about managing the resources you… Read more »
Poles is proving to be the newbie GM many of us thought he would be. Yes, he benefited greatly from two successive # 1 picks but according to some analytics taking cap monies spent, signings, and other picks…he has failed to build a roster that can compete thus risking the development of CW while assuring Poles of two more years of employment after he dumps Eberflus…another big mistake Poles made by bootlicking George.