Progress and process: How Bears view Fields' rough Year 2 start originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The quarterback education of Justin Fields is a process, one which the Bears hope yields weekly, incremental progress for the second-year signal-caller.
That Fields' 11 completions and 174 yards in the Bears' Week 4 loss to the New York Giants were both season highs speaks to the slow grind this journey will be over the next 13 games.
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The Bears' passing attack has several issues that need to be ironed out, from protection problems to red-zone inefficiencies.
Fields can buoy the lifeless passing attack by absorbing each week's lessons and putting them into action the following Sunday. A lot of it comes with experience. Fields has only started 14 games in his NFL career and only four in offensive coordinator Luke Getsy's system, so don't expect wholesale improvements overnight. That's rarely the case with young quarterbacks.
So, where can Fields make quick improvements starting Sunday when the Bears visit the Minnesota Vikings? Start with taking the layup throws, especially in the red zone.
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"We gotta take the completions when they're there," Getsy said of the Bears' red-zone struggles in New York. "I think he passed up a couple you know cheap completions that gets you into that second-and-3, second-and-4, which makes the gold zone a lot more easier to go score. We gotta improve on upon that. We gotta go get those little cheap completions and then we just gotta execute in the run game better too."
Getsy highlighted a play in the red zone where Fields had tight end Cole Kmet, his first read on the play, open in the flat. Instead of hitting Kmet for an easy pickup, Fields tried to scramble and wound up being sacked.
To Getsy, these alarming plays boil down to reps. They will eventually become second nature to Fields. That's the belief, at least.
"I mean, again that's a part of it," Getsy said of experience helping Fields take the cheap completions. "The two instances that I can think of, he had somebody sort of in his vision and so he had to make a split decision and both times — one time he decided to stick his foot in the ground and try to beat the defensive end inside and I think he took a sack, a 2-yard sack. And Cole's in the flat as your primary receiver, you've just got to manipulate the defender and make that throw. Again, that is an experience rep. That's not like an easy thing that you just go out there and you know how to do that. And so, he's experienced it and he's gotten so much better at those as we've gone along."
Fields has been one of the NFL's worst quarterbacks this season. He ranks 31st out of 32 in ESPN's QBR metric. According to NFL's Next Gen Stats, Fields has the worst CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expectation) of any quarterback with at least 50 throws. He has completed 13.1 percent fewer passes than he should.
"He should have less than 50 percent because he should have thrown about six or eight of them away instead of taking some sacks, so he actually should have less than that, yeah," Getsy said of Fields' NFL-worst 50.7 completion percent.
Despite Matt Nagy's broken offense last season, Fields still found ways to pop against the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers. But this season, he seems to be regressing. He appears hesitant to throw because he either doesn't want to pull the trigger or isn't seeing the field the way he should.
Take the much-discussed decision not to hit a wide-open Darnell Mooney up the seam late in the second quarter against the Giants. Mooney ran the wrong route, going straight up the left hash instead of bending it to the right. Fields followed the coaching points and scrambled to pick up 12 yards and a first down against the Giants' shell Cover 2.
It's all explainable on the surface.
But quarterback is an instinctual position. It's great Fields followed his keys and got a positive play, but most starting quarterbacks in the NFL would see a guy break open and be able to throw a strike for a likely 35-yard touchdown.
Getsy doesn't see it that way, though.
"I think it's harder than that," Getsy said of the four verticals miss. "I think when your eyes are in a certain place and somebody doesn't get to that area, it makes you, what we talk about, your time clock starts, right? So if you're taking a five and a hitch and your primary receiver isn't in that area you're supposed to be, even though he's like open, where he was running kind of left hash, he should have been right hash, and he would have been open, I believe he would have thrown the ball to him because what looked like a two-high shell to him really was turning into a one-high and then Mooney would have been on that right hash and he should have been on that right hash and he would have thrown it."
There's no question that Fields, once viewed as the rocket-armed, super-accurate quarterback with blazing speed, has gone backward in a critical second season.
He doesn't look confident or comfortable on Sundays. He is either missing throws badly or unwilling to let it rip. It's a bad combination.
And yet, Getsy doesn't see the 23-year-old struggling. He sees the process.
"Well, I don't think he's had a rough month," Getsy said. "I think he's gotten better each week. I think he's growing tremendously. And you know, it's not easy.
"It's not easy to become the level of quarterback that he wants to become and I know that he can become. And so, the important thing is that we stay focused, keep our eyes on that progress or on that process and we make sure we get better each and every week and I believe that we're in that phase."
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Eventually, that process has to yield tangible results. Justin Fields has to start looking like the rare quarterback prospect many believed him to be coming out of Ohio State. The accuracy needs to return, as does the confidence.
Getsy and head coach Matt Eberflus keep banging the "process" drum regarding Fields' struggles.
But it's much easier to ruin young quarterbacks in the NFL than mold them into superstars. So if there's any process going on right now, it's the Bears failing a potential generational talent.
It's a process that needs to reverse course before it's too late.
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