Providing an in-season update his predecessor rarely gave, Bears general manager Ryan Poles emphasized his collaboration with Matt Eberflus and the Bears competitiveness under their first-time head coach. But he knew that wasn’t exactly what Bears fans want to hear. He pretty quickly switched gears.
“I know Justin [Fields] has been a big topic and his development,” Poles said before the Bears’ game against the Patriots on Monday night at Gillette Stadium. “We’re encouraged with the progress. I know it’s not on the statistics and on paper all the time, but he is getting better in a lot of different areas.
“As a whole we’ve got to continue to play better around him as well to allow him to keep playing well and get his confidence going and execute at a high level.”
That right there is the biggest point of contention regarding Fields’ development. Two months into the season, the criticism still stands — that Poles has short-circuited Fields’ development by giving him a modest corps of wide receivers; and a makeshift offensive line that has led Fields to develop bad habits — happy feet and indecisiveness — and most of all, put him at risk of taking one hit too many.
Poles pushed back on that notion before Week 1 — saying he was building an entire team and not one side of the ball, and expressing belief in the playmakers he had. And he reiterated that point Monday, saying Fields has enough support to make a fair evaluation of where he is in Year 2.
“We’re still able to evaluate everybody in our current situation,” Poles said. “I’m convicted with the things that we did this offseason and in the draft. And we’ll continue to chip away.
“Everything we’re going to do is to sustain success over a long period of time. Within that, I think we can still evaluate our players — from the quarterback to guys on defense and all the positions.”
That was clearly Poles’ biggest message of all, that while fans, media and other critics examine every move this team makes with a microscope and see most developments as defining, he’s still taking the long view and seeing every step — forward or backward — as part of the process.
So it didn’t sound like Fields’ uneven-at-best, regression-at-worst start to this season has caused Poles to second-guess his grand plan and maybe fortify the offense with a proven wide receiver or playmaker before the Nov. 1 trade deadline. He didn’t rule it out. But he’s not feeling any desperation about it.
“Regardless [of Fields’ situation], were always going to be active in terms if picking up the phone to see if that is something that can improve our team … and it makes sense for us,” Poles said, “not only for now because — I’ve always talked about this — it’s sustaining success for a long period of time.
“It’s not the short fix all the time. Just blending that together is tough because it takes a lot of discipline to do. That’s what we’re balancing.”
In a rebuilding season where there are benefits to losing games, Poles’ strategy can only become a major disaster if Fields doesn’t make it through the season. Fields came into Monday night’s game with 23 sacks in just 138 drop-backs — easily the highest sack rate in the NFL.
Poles agreed with his coaches that Fields, the offensive line and general protection schemes share the blame for that. But it all starts up front. With Poles’ background as an offensive lineman, it figured he would put together a quality offensive line. But so far, it’s been shaky.
Guard Lucas Patrick hasn’t been the foundation piece he is expected to be. Fifth-round rookie tackle Braxton Jones, a starter since Week 1, has shown promise but also has made rookie mistakes. Cody Whitehair is on injured reserve. Center Sam Mustipher was benched in favor of Patrick against the Patriots, with veteran Michael Schofield starting at left guard. It was the fourth different starting lineup this season, and third in the last four games.
That hasn’t helped Fields.
“As an offensive lineman, you’re always worried about that,” Poles said. “You want your [quarterback] upright all the time. When you watch the tape, there is give and take on that. It’s a little bit of [Fields] executing faster. But there are also some protection things that need to improve. So it’s really a holistic view that needs to improve to stay upright.”
Publicly at least, Poles is leaning on the highlights in his evaluation of Fields. “With young players, what you’re looking for are flashes,” he said. “And I think he has shown some flashes of getting the ball out on time, being accurate, some of the deep shots — like the one to Pettis [a 40-yard touchdown against the Commanders] was incredible. So continue to do those things — that’s what we’re looking for.”
All those things also happen to be flaws in Fields’ game. So it remains to be seen if Poles has the same optimism at the end of the season that he does now. Asked if he can make a decision on Fields after this season or needs a second year in Luke Getsy’s offense — presumably with an improved supporting cast — Poles predictably left his options open.
“We’re taking that one game at a time,” Poles said, “and evaluating how he approaches every single game and executes it, and then we’ll build long-term from there.”
