The Chicago Bears’ Justin Fields entered Sunday’s game with the Atlanta Falcons as the arguably hottest player in pro football. Led by Fields’ unique multifaceted talents, the Bears’ offense had scored over 120 points in their last four games. But aside from a few key players, Chicago has very few other game-changing talents on offense — especially up front on the offensive line. That means asking Fields to play superhero every single week probably wasn’t always going to be the best idea.
In the final minutes of a 27-24 Falcons win, we saw this come to fruition in an awful way for the Chicago quarterback and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. With the Bears looking to at least tie matters up after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, Chicago gave Fields a now trademark designed run on first down. It resulted in just one yard but even worse — Fields appeared to seriously hurt his left shoulder.
Rather than protect Fields and go back to the passing game on second down (which, to be fair, still kind of puts him in danger behind a terrible line), Getsy called another designed run. It went for a solid four yards, but it was clear that the OC got a little overzealous with his young quarterback’s legs when he probably should’ve been protecting his health on a team already well out of playoff contention.
After the game, Fields acknowledged that the first designed run was where he hurt his shoulder:
Justin Fields said he did hurt his shoulder on the first play of the last drive. pic.twitter.com/uVAXaRp9yh
— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) November 20, 2022
Naturally, folks who realized the Bears had unleashed a real gem in Fields — one of the league’s more exciting young quarterbacks — weren’t happy with Getsy’s questionable play-calling. While the status of his injury is unclear, the Chicago signal caller seems likely to miss at least some time before the end of the season.