Bears quarterback Justin Fields is quickly finding himself discussed among the NFL’s top quarterbacks, which has to do with his impressive performance over the last three weeks.
Since the mini-bye week, Chicago has catered this offense to fit Fields’ strengths, including his elite rushing ability. That led to a record-setting performance in last Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, where Fields rushed for 178 yards (the most ever by a quarterback in a regular-season game).
Fields is also starting to gain more notoriety on a national scale, where analysts have been singing his praises.
NFL.com’s Marc Sessler released his Week 10 quarterback rankings, where Fields cracked the top 10 for the first time, climbing 13 spots from 23 to 10.
Fields started the season nestled at the bottom of this list. The lost-puppy look has been wiped off his face as the second-year starter emerges as one of the game’s more exciting player-development tales. Chicago play-caller Luke Getsy deserves Nick Sirianni-level credit for this midseason reshaping of the Bears’ offense into the league’s nastiest ground attack, with Fields at the forefront. He’s the league’s 11th-leading rusher, having fried another victim Sunday with his 61-yard scoring blast against the Dolphins. He’s also grown as a passer over the past few weeks. His targets are loving it, but scrambled defenses are not, forced to account for the threat of him taking off into space. Mike McDaniel quipped after the game, explaining why he told Fields to “stop it” with the footraces. “I just wanted him to stop scrambling, and it was pretty irritating ‘cause he didn’t listen at all.”
Fields ranks behind Patrick Mahomes (1), Josh Allen (2), Jalen Hurts (3), Lamar Jackson (4), Joe Burrow (5), Geno Smith (6), Tua Tagovailoa (7), Dak Prescott (8) and Kirk Cousins (9).
The future is certainly bright for Fields, who has another eight games this season to continue to develop in his second season. Then, it’s a busy offseason where GM Ryan Poles will look to build around his hopeful franchise quarterback.
