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The Chicago Bears have reached the point of the season where many decisions lie ahead after Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons, but Justin Fields hit the point where his usage has finally caught up to him.
The Bears have used him to the point where he’s taking too many unnecessary hits, but it’s at the point of how sustainable is this over so many games?
He took plenty of hits yesterday and his non throwing shoulder was injured late in the game. Their defense has shown that it cannot contain any NFL offense over the course of an entire game.
The Bears currently have the third worst record in the NFL and the quarterback has taken a step forward this season.
Do you shut him down for a few weeks to heal? Do you regress on his designed runs? You have to do what keeps him healthy, and progresses him.
Now that winning and making a push for the playoff hunt is completely out the window; it’s time to lower his usage and just play it safe. He’s shown progress, so do what is needed to keep him confident and healthy.
Yesterday’s loss against Atlanta was positive because defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, showed Luke Getsy and Justin Fields that their game plan can be taken out of the game. It was a learning curve for both, and hopefully they can look back on the game film and see what changes need to be made when this happens.
Let’s take a look into Justin Fields' stat line yesterday against the Atlanta Falcons.
14-for-21 (66.7%)
153 Passing Yards
One Passing Touchdown
One Interception
85 Rushing Yards
One Rushing Touchdown
Fields threw a very unfortunate interception to end the game that wasn’t the best ball after he already injured his shoulder. He had immense pressure in his face, and threw a jump pass to David Montgomery.
The number one rule for pass catchers is if it hits both your hands, you catch the ball, but it wasn’t a great ball, and arguably should’ve been caught.
Let’s take a statistical look into what Justin Fields is on pace for in a 17 game season.
59.6% Completion Percentage
2,538 Passing Yards
20 Passing Touchdowns
12 Interceptions
1,288 Rushing Yards
11 Rushing Touchdowns
Not a big jump from the last two weeks' major performances, but considering these are fairly normal numbers from year two quarterbacks, there is a lot of promise to still be excited about.
Chicago has a new offense and Fields’ had a very rollercoaster year, one being in and out of the lineup and had little to no consistency at all under former head coach Matt Nagy.
As the games start to be put together, including the midseason turnaround, the stats don’t look as cherry picked as they did a few weeks ago.
Here is Justin Fields 17 game projection since week five.
63.7 Completion Percentage
2,843 Passing Yards
27 Passing Touchdowns
10 Interceptions
1,668 Rushing Yards
15 Rushing Touchdowns
Clearly the rushing numbers are extremely high and more than likely impossible for a quarterback to obtain, buthe positives are seeing his passing volume rise since things began to click.
While the numbers aren’t nearly as high as we would love, it's an improvement. This year was all about the growth of Justin Fields, and not about the win/loss record.
Justin Fields was written off after a few weeks of the season and was mocked on all social media outlets, and tortured by the mid-day talk shows.
Within weeks, he was praised as one of the top players of the league and there’s still going to be head scratchers, and bone head plays, but let the kid grow, and be happy Chicago doesn’t have Zach Wilson.
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