FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Bears quarterback Justin Fields ranks near the bottom of the NFL in most passing categories, but general manager Ryan Poles remains upbeat on his overall improvement regardless of how imperceptible it is in his production.
“Justin’s been a big topic in his development,” Poles said. “We’re encouraged with the progress that’s there. I know it’s not in the statistics and on the paper all the time, but he is getting better in a lot of different areas. As a whole, we’ve gotta play better around him as well to allow him to keep playing well and get his confidence going and execute at a high level.”
Poles said he’ll have his eye on “a few different things” regarding Fields over the final 11 games, starting tonight against the Patriots.
“How he’s being used — Are we putting him in a position where he can be successful?” he said. “And then the execution and the details of what he’s being asked to do and really speeding up to the game and making decisions quicker. But again, the beautiful thing about football is it’s reliant on everybody else. So as a whole, we have to improve. I think we’ll see that everyone starts to get better and we’ll start to ascend.”
Poles took over in January, inheriting a team that went 22-27 over the last three years under predecessor Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy. He became a first-time general manager at age 37 and hired Matt Eberflus as coach.
Poles was conservative in his first offseason with a clear priority of building the Bears for the future rather than trying to compete this season. All of his additions on the offensive line and at wide receiver were on budget-friendly, short-term contracts.
The deficiencies at those positions could make it difficult for the Bears to get a clear view of where Fields stands, though Poles disagreed.
“We’re still able to evaluate everyone in our current situation,” he said. “I’m convicted in the things we did do in the offseason and the draft, and we’ll continue to chip away. Everything that we’re doing is to sustain success over a long period of time. Within that, I think we can still evaluate our players.”
When pressed specifically about the pass-blocking issues, which are part of the equation of Fields being sacked 23 times (third-most in the league), Poles said, “There’s give and take on that. It’s a little bit of [Fields] executing faster, but then there’s also some protection things that need to improve. It’s really a wholistic deal that needs to improve for him to stay upright.”
Fields has a 54.8 completion percentage, last among players who have thrown at least 100 passes. He has 869 yards passing (30th), four touchdown passes (29th), five interceptions (seventh-highest) and a 72.7 passer rating (32nd).
