Justin Fields was asked Wednesday what he’s shown the Bears in his third season.
“Improvement,” Fields said. “They know — everybody knows who I am in the building. Like I said, control what I can control.”
It was hardly an impassioned defense of his own play. It would have been surprising, though, to see Fields detail a point-by-point retort to fans who think he’s entering the final three games of his Bears career. That’s not in his personality. With rare exception — in Week 3, he pointed to coaching as a reason he was playing too robotic — Fields doesn’t try to draw attention to himself.
That’s why, when asked to detail his improvement, he said it came “from everywhere” before pivoting to explain how he needs to keep getting better. He needs to take care of the ball and put at least 28 points per game on offense to complement a stout Bears defense, he said.
Everyone has an opinion on Fields’ future, something the quarterback acknowledged as the premise of the question Wednesday. Until the Bears make a decision about it, the debate about what they should do will continue to rage through social media and at every bar and schoolyard within a 100-mile radius of Halas Hall. When the decision is made, it will morph into whom to credit — or blame — for what’s next.
Fields didn’t fuel either side Wednesday. But his main, muted argument — that he’s gotten better — is less substantial than what the best quarterbacks in the NFL would maintain. Patrick Mahomes can point to rings, Lamar Jackson to regular-season wins, Aaron Rodgers to longevity. Fields remains a work-in-progress. The question isn’t whether he’s improving, but whether it’s happening fast enough to matter. The Bears are in line to pick No. 1 overall in a draft that has quarterbacks projected to be selected both first and second.
Fields has an uphill battle over the final three games to prove himself as the team’s quarterback of the future. Sunday’s stinker didn’t help — the Bears’ offense managed 10 points against a nasty Browns defense, with seven coming on a 1-yard scoring drive that took eight snaps.
The Bears face the Cardinals, who have the league’s second-worst defense, Sunday. The week after that: a Falcons team that lost to the Panthers, the worst team in football, a week ago. The potential for a false positive lurks in both games, particularly with the Bears having gone from on the fringes of the playoff race to a longshot after the Browns loss. Still, Fields is auditioning — be it for the Bears or someone else.
Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon needs no introduction — he was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator last year when Fields ran 15 times for 95 yards at Soldier Field. He detailed to Cardinals reporters this week how Fields broke six tackles on a single play during that game.
“Here’s what I know about him,” he said. “He can make every throw on the field when it’s cold and rainy in Chicago, like it’s going to be. Wind doesn’t matter because he’s got a huge arm. He’s extremely mobile. He’s hard to tackle. His extension of plays is very productive. When you’ve got a play, when you have to design a plan for that type of skillset at quarterback, it makes it very challenging. ….
“He can beat you when the ball comes out on time and he can beat you when the ball does not come out on time. There’s some guys that can do that, but there’s not a ton of them.”
That’s a better argument for Fields than the quarterback himself made Wednesday. If it were only so simple.
