LOS ANGELES — From the day they drafted Joe Burrow with the No. 1 pick, the Bengals treated him like the franchise quarterback they hoped he’d become.
They didn’t wait to see it. They assumed it.
Listen as coach Zac Taylor explained Friday how they approached bringing him in as a rookie and notice how drastically different it sounds from the way the Bears handled Justin Fields this season.
“We wanted to make sure that we built this thing around him and how he’d feel most comfortable,” he said after practice at UCLA. “He should be involved in everything we do. That includes opinions on other players that we’re adding to the team, scheme, game plan and adjustments over the course of the game.
“I want him to feel comfortable on game day, because when he feels comfortable, he plays at a special level.”
It’s a jaw-dropping contrast between the Bengals and Bears, and everyone can see whose philosophy worked better.
Burrow had a promising rookie season despite it ending abruptly because he tore his ACL, then returned with a spectacular performance to take the Bengals to Super Bowl LVI. If he leads them to victory against the Rams on Sunday, he’ll become just the fifth quarterback to win a Super Bowl within his first two seasons.
Fields, meanwhile, didn’t get that rookie head start as he tried to sort through the clutter of former coach Matt Nagy’s offense and the organization’s misguided plan to sit him behind Andy Dalton the entire season.
It was Dalton’s mediocrity, by the way, that led the Bengals to burn it down and start over with Burrow.
While Burrow was a more highly rated and accomplished prospect, Fields was hardly a project after what he did at Ohio State. And the commitment level from an organization isn’t any different when a team drafts a quarterback at No. 1 versus No. 11 — especially when the Bears also gave up their 2022 first-rounder to get him.
Fields’ rookie season was mostly a wreck with occasional bright spots that offered big-time hope. His numbers reflect the dysfunction of working in an offense that wasn’t tailored to his skills, playing with limited personnel and being sandbagged by spending the whole offseason as a second-stringer.
It’s no wonder he performed so choppily. Fields played 12 games, starting 10, and finished with seven touchdown passes, 10 interceptions, an average of 239 yards in his starts and a wince-worthy final passer rating of 72.3.
The situation Burrow walked into was nearly the complete opposite, and the benefit is undeniable.
“That was huge,” he said. “As a young quarterback, you just need to get reps and get out there and play. If I had gone into camp with the mindset that I had to compete for a job, it would’ve limited my ability to figure out what works on an NFL level.
“I was able to make mistakes and make throws that I probably wouldn’t have made if I was competing for a job. I was able to feel out those mistakes because I knew I was gonna be the starter.”
Cringe. The Bears should’ve hired this guy as a consultant.
Burrow had his fair share of stinkers over his 10 starts as a rookie, but the overall results were solid — 13 touchdowns, five interceptions, 89.8 rating — and, more importantly, he took the necessary steps to set up what he did in Year 2.
He accelerated from good to great with a late surge of 11 touchdowns and no picks over his final four games and has been irrepressible in the playoffs. He’s been taking sacks constantly because the Bengals still have work to do on their offensive line, but he’s operating the offense like it belongs to him.
The more Burrow talks about everything the Bengals did to ensure his success, the more stomach-turning it is to recall how the Bears mismanaged Fields.
New coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy are intent on doing it right and treating next season as a do-over for Fields.
Eberflus said in his opening press conference they’d be, “building this offense around him and his strengths.” Getsy described the process of formulating his offense as a collaboration with Fields because it’ll be a “quarterback-driven” scheme.
That’ll give them the best shot at unlocking Fields’ potential.
Who knows if he can be as good as Burrow? No, seriously, who actually knows that? Because after his chaotic rookie season, it’s for anyone to be certain about anything with Fields. It’s why he needed a reset so badly and embraced the hiring of Eberflus and Getsy. Now it’s up to them to give him the full Burrow treatment and see how far he can go.
