What if You Are Wrong About Fields?

What If You Are Wrong About Justin Fields?

The Chicago Bears are the most interesting team in the draft. They have Justin Fields and the potential to have Caleb Williams, who is supposed to be generational. The compensation vs. the number one pick. What will the Bears do? Everyone thinks they have it figured out, but what if you are wrong?

Parable

This situation reminds me of Jimmy G and Trey Lance. Jimmy is a game manager, not a game changer. However, everyone got so excited that they were drafting a younger, more athletic quarterback. The national discourse quickly stripped Jimmy G of his credit for the Super Bowl run and cast him aside. However, Trey Lance hadn't played much in college and couldn't win the starting job when Jimmy went down despite having a three 1st round trade incentive for him to be the starter. In fact, Jimmy G led the 49ers to the NFC Conference Championship.

Next year, people swore Jimmy G was done with the 49ers. He was rumored to be going to a few places, but time ticked on, and Jimmy G stayed put. Kyle handed the team to Trey, and Jimmy G wasn't even practicing with the 49ers anymore. However, Jimmy G knew the 49ers offense well and its players even better. Still, fans and media ignored the fact that Jimmy G was still with the 49ers and instead started turning the fact that he hadn't been traded into the confirmation that he was terrible and nobody wanted him. However, this assumption ignored that Jimmy G was coming off an injury, and every team knew the 49ers had to get rid of him.

Also, people should have noticed that Trey Lance was not doing well as the lead guy. The 49ers knew that which is why, even though they had every reason to cut Jimmy, they kept him as a backup plan. They didn't believe in Trey Lance as much as the media would have led you to believe. Fast forward to the season where Trey loses to a future 3-win team quarterbacked by Justin Fields, the QB the 49ers passed on. Then Trey struggles against the Seahawks, gets injured, and Jimmy G slides right back in even though he wasn't even supposed to be there. Now, both Jimmy and Trey are off the team. Jimmy briefly became a starter for the Raiders, and Trey was traded for peanuts to be a third-string quarterback for the Cowboys.

Bears Offseason

Why do I bring all this up? Because it's Deja Vu'. The media tells you that Justin Fields is out of Chicago and acting like Caleb is already the Bears' quarterback. Just like they told us, Jimmy was out of the 49ers over the summer. Ironically, they even said he would go to the Falcons at one point. Then, when he wasn't traded, the narrative was that nobody wanted him. Sound familiar? One day, we heard that the Falcons and Fields were sure things. The next day, we heard that Justin's market was less robust than the Bears would have hoped.

Before you assume that Justin sucks and nobody wants him, ask yourself this would you pay a premium for a player you knew a team had to get a trade done with, or would you use that leverage to drive down the price? Also, what makes us so sure that Justin is really even being traded? Poles never said we are seeking a trade for Justin Fields. He just said that we wouldn't want to leave Justin in the grey if we did that. But could the Bears just be dangling Justin to get other teams to pay that much more for the asset they think the Bears are keeping? Poles said it would take a trade just like the one he made last year to get him to move off the number one pick.

The media will tell you that Poles is going to move off Fields cause he's not his guy. However, Justin Fields became the Poles guy when he had the number one pick last year and selected Justin Fields instead of Bryce Young. Poles brought back Eberflus even though Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh, etc, were on the market. He fired Getsy. He hired Shane Waldron and OC, who helped Geno return to prominence. If the Bears wanted Caleb, they would have hired Kingsbury, who has a history with Caleb and runs a Caleb friendly system. Poles didn't do that, though. Does that sound like a GM who is out on Fields or like a guy firing the people he felt held Justin back and hiring people that will help Justin succeed and keep continuity with the quarterback and head coach? It's very difficult to believe that Poles thinks the Bear's record is unacceptable for Fields but good for Eberflus.

The Truth About Justin

When discussing the Fields vs. Caleb debate, Justin is quickly dismissed for his lack of 300-yard games and his 11 wins in three years. This leads people to conclude that he sucks, but that isn't true. Running-wise, he's already a top-five running QB of all time. He's second to Lamar in single-season rushing, breaking Vick's record. He's the second-fastest player in NFL history to reach 5,000 rushing yards and 2,000 rushing yards. The point is that despite being in a bad situation, Justin's many broken records show his individual talent.

DJ Moore, who had a career year with Justin throwing to him, certainly sees it. Most NFL minds, especially players, understand how good Justin is. The list of NFL Minds who have come out and supported Justin and spoken highly of his skill set includes Jaylon Johnson, Darnell Mooney, Von Miller, CJ Stroud, Lance Briggs, Mike Singletary, Jonathan Gannon, Chase Daniels, Roddy White, Johnny Manziel, Jared Allen, George Kittle, and many many more.

You would think that the fact that the Bears players, as well as hall of famers and members of other teams, were vouching for Fields would mean something. However, the idea of a new star entering the league and being the greatest ever is too intoxicating. Every year, the media falls in love with picks and overhypes them. Just looking at the last few years, you can see a pattern. Justin Fields was supposed to be in a great QB class, but now people act like it was terrible. Trevor Lawrence was supposed to be generational, and now, just three years later, we have another generational talent, which is insane given the meaning of generational. If you push back on the draft hype, you are told that these picks are amazing and there will never be another draft of great QBs, so you have to strike now. However, that's what they said last year: that the Bears couldn't pass on last year's class, and yet here we are the very next year with a QB people say would have gone number one last year.

Development

Many people look at the results rather than the process. You are probably wondering if Fields is so great; how come he hasn't broken out, and his win-loss record is abysmal? Well, I'd say look at the organization because they had a big hand in that. Take any QB you think single handedly dragged their team to success. It's a different build. Joe Burrow inherited a team that was trying to build towards winning. He's had the same coach his entire career, and in his first year, he got two wins, one tie, and a season-ending injury. The Next year, the Bengals built up the team, and he had a breakout.

People think that just because Justin Fields had DJ Moore, he should have broken out. But Joe Burrow had T Higgins, AJ Green, Boyd, and Mixon in year one. It wasn't til Chase got there, and he had the best receiving core in the league and a defense that he broke out. Jalen Hurts and Tua had Waddle and DeVonta Smith in their second years, and like Fields, they improved, but they didn't break out till their third year when they got additional Studs AJ Brown and Tyreek Hill, respectively. Fields will do the same thing, but it won't be his third year because last year was really his second year in the team timeline. Justin had two lost years between a rookie season, like most QBs, and a tank year after that, unlike most QBs, so his breakout third year will actually be his fourth year.

That's also something that nobody seems to like to talk about when they discuss Field's record. Most of that record is from a rookie season and a tank season. Of course, it looks horrible. Justin's performance has to be put in the context of the situation he is in. Another thing people prefer to avoid bringing up regarding fields is coaching. Luke Getsy was fired for a reason. Justin got clowned early in his 2022 season for his lack of passing production, but the Bears were running at a historic rate by design. In addition to that, Getsy wasn't playing to Justin's strengths. Once he finally did,. We got the Patriots game in 2022, where Fields had a mini breakout.

The Bears would go on to be a highlight factory in 2022 but have very few wins to show for it by design. Many people were sure that what Justin was doing would translate to wins once Justin got more weapons. However, Luke Getsy reverted to his Rodgers system instead, changed Justin's footwork, and tried to make him fit Getsy instead of Getsy fitting a system to Fields. The Results weren't great when Justin ran the system optimally. He was a game manager who didn't turn the ball over, but when Getsy turned him loose, he was a star. Getsy returning to his game plan from week one in the final game against the Packers likely got him canned. Getsy and Fields are incompatible, but they can both be successful away from each other.

If you look at all the other star QBs, you see the importance of coaching. Tua took off when Mike McDaniels arrived, pumped him up, and built around Tua. Jalen Hurts did well with a clearly great OC who played to his strengths in Shane Steichen. Josh Allen broke out with Josh Daboll. You could even see the difference coaching makes just last year between before and after the Bills fired their OC mid-season. Justin needs his guy to believe in him and build around him. Look at Mahomes, even. Everyone says Caleb is the next Mahomes, and he will hit the ground running and immediately be better than Fields. Still, Mahomes had the legendary mind of Andy Reid and sat behind Alex Smith for a year to refine his game.

What if Justin gets all that somewhere else? What if Justin leaves the Bears and gets with a stable organization like the Steelers, with a team that believes in him, builds around him, and gives him a good supporting cast? How bad would the Bears look to have let Justin walk out of their building if he becomes a star for another franchise? If you are wrong about Fields, and he is really as good as all these football minds keep telling you he is, then the Bears missed out on a generational haul for nothing and set themselves years back from contending for nothing. What if you gave up on Fields right before his Jordan Love 4th year breakout?

Kevin Warren, the president of football operations, did a public interview saying he was glad Justin was with the Bears. Ryan Poles traded back once and said he believes Justin can lead this team. What if all these football minds that told you Justin Fields is good were right? What if all the signs that the Bears are keeping Justin are right in front of you? What if you are wrong about Justin Fields?