Yes, Justin Fields is healthy enough to play the next two weeks.
And no, the Bears won’t shut him down.
That was the message — the right one — sent by head coach Matt Eberflus on Monday, two days after Fields left the game when his foot was stepped on during his final pass in a 35-13 loss to the Bills.
After the game, Fields said he couldn’t put his full weight on his foot without pain, but claimed he’d be fine for the next week. His separated left shoulder still hurt, too, but that was no surprise — Fields knew the pain would nag at him once he returned from the Nov. 20 injury.
Eberflus was emphatic that Fields won’t be shut down — “Absolutely not,” he said — despite the Bears being in striking distance for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft. The 2-12-1 Texans, who would draft first were the season to end today, are only a half-game worse than the 3-12 Bears with two games to play. The Texans host the Jaguars and finish the season at the Colts; the Bears travel to Detroit on Sunday before hosting the Vikings.
“We’ve got to get better,” Eberflus said. “We want to improve. We want to see where we are. These last two games matter. They’re division opponents to us, very important to our football team to see the competition, to see guys compete against our division.
“I think it’s important for each man, it’s important for each unit and it’s important for our whole football team.”
Try telling that to the portion of the fan base that has fetishized draft order long before the Bears embarked on their eight-game losing streak. Eberflus, though, has emphasized laying the foundation of his program throughout his first season. The Bears have, largely, marched through an abysmal season without some of the circus acts that come with a losing team. There’s been no Kyler-Murray-yells-at-Kliff-Kingsbury moment. Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett was fired Monday because of a 37-point loss to a five-win Rams team; the Bears have no such head-scratching blowouts.
The Bears put cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kindle Vildor on injured reserve Saturday with injuries. Eberflus said he hoped some of the team’s remaining injured veterans would return to practice Wednesday.
Playing the final two games to win has value, Eberflus said.
“We have to learn how to finish,” he said. “We’re at the game two days ago, but you saw it, right? It was fourth quarter, eight minutes to go it was 21-13, right? We got the ball and we gotta learn how to finish. We have to finish there. ….
“They’re getting close to really understanding how to finish the game and you finish with game-defining execution. That’s what you finish with. You finish in those moments that the plays when they matter in the fourth quarter, we execute. And to me, these next two games are just about that. Being able to execute in those game-defining moments, those plays that matter and getting it done. And to me, that’s important going forward to the future.”
When the Bears prepared for their second game against the Packers earlier this month, they were struck by how far Fields had come since the first meeting in Week 2. There’s a benefit to seeing similar growth in rematches against the Lions and Vikings.
“When you get a like opponent and a like skillset, the schemes are real similar, so it’s always a good comparison to do that,” Eberflus said. “I think that’s a good idea.”
