Tag: justin fields matt nagy

How the Bears can give Justin Fields half a chance in 2022

Justin Fields suffered through the Matt Nagy era as we all did. Here’s how the new-look Bears can get more from their young quarterback.

There are times when rookie quarterbacks enter the NFL, and the entire deck is stacked against them. Some are able to overcome it, and some really aren’t. Bert Jones of the Baltimore Colts threw four touchdowns to 12 interceptions in his rookie season of 1973, became the only rookie quarterback ever to post a negative and went on to become one of the NFL’s most dynamic passers in the later part of the decade — Jones was John Elway before John Elway to a degree. Terry Bradshaw threw six touchdowns to 24 interceptions in his rookie season of 1970, and it took a number of years before he gained Chuck Noll’s trust and became the Hall of Famer he eventually became. And most of us remember Peyton Manning barfing up 28 picks in his rookie season of 1998 before things eventually turned around in a positive direction.

Rookie yips are pretty common. There are other times when quarterback and coaching staff just don’t work well together, and you get some really bad rookie results. Think of Jared Goff’s 2016 season. The first overall pick was saddled with Jeff Fisher’s coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Rob Boras, and Goff produced some of the worst DVOA (-74.8%) and DYAR (-881) numbers in Football Outsiders’ long history. Not that Goff rebounded to become a Hall of Fame-caliber player, but he did manage to dig himself out of quite a canyon when Sean McVay came calling in 2017.

Moving to the case of Justin Fields, who the Bears selected with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 draft (trading their 2022 first-round pick to move up to do it), we have another situation in which a rookie quarterback was monumentally ill-served by his coaching staff. Fields had to endure all kinds of garbage about his NFL readiness in the pre-draft process — things that are sadly common for most young Black quarterbacks — when his Ohio State tape told a very different story.

On Black quarterbacks, the desire to be great, and the words we use

Once Fields was past all that, he had to deal with a far more tangible obstacle — the involvement of then-Bears head coach and offensive “play-designer” Matt Nagy. Nagy refused to let Fields play in the preseason with the starters, did all he could to promote Andy Dalton of Fields as the starter, and saddled the rookie with game designs that betrayed a stunning ignorance of Fields’ specific skills.

This would be one example — a bit of research I came across when I was writing this year’s “Best NFL quarterbacks for every type of throw” piece.

Fields showed that he was an adept passer outside the pocket, so Nagy didn’t let him do it. Fields was far better than Dalton when under pressure, and Nagy ignored it. Fields was far more dynamic when given the benefit of play-action, so, of course, he was barely ever given the benefit of it. Fields’ passer rating with pre-snap motion of 96.6 was far higher than his 63.7 passer rating without it, so guess what didn’t happen as often as it should have?

The only time Fields had any opportunity to do what he’s able to do in 2021 was when offensive coordinator Bill Lazor took the reins for a short time… and then, Nagy took them back.

Bears QB Justin Fields shows what can be done with a real play-caller

The Bears have never fired a head coach in-season in a franchise history that goes back to 1920, and Nagy should have been the first.

Now that Nagy is mercifully gone, replaced by former Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus (and new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy), it’s time for Fields to be given even half a chance to succeed in the NFL after a season in which he was doomed before he ever walked into Halas Hall.

Not that Getsy needs our advice, but here are a few things he might want to consider.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, Football Outsiders, and Pro Football Reference unless otherwise indicated).

The one play that should have Bears fans excited about Justin Fields

Justin Fields had a few spectacular plays in his NFL debut, but here’s the one throw that shows how ready he is for the next level.

As we have noted on several occasions, the Chicago Bears haven’t had a true field-tilting quarterback since Sid Luckman was at his best around World War II. The Bears were one of two teams without a 4,000-yard passer in the 16-game era that lasted from 1978 through 2020 (the Jets were the other team, of course), and there have been far too many Rex Grossmans and Kyle Ortons and Jim Millers and Chad Hutchinsons along the way. In 2016, the year before this franchise traded up to select Mitchell Trubisky, their leading passer was… Matt Barkley. When Jay Cutler is your franchise’s all-time leader among quarterbacks in Approximate Value, you may just have a quarterback curse. Trubisky, who is now the Bills’ backup quarterback, ranks sixth on that list.

It’s been bad, folks.

So, when Ohio State’s Justin Fields fell to the Bears with the 11th overall pick, you can imagine that general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy (both of whom are on the hot seat for several reasons, the Trubisky pick among them) had to be stopped from injuring themselves getting that selection together in a big hurry. Fields came into the league with the athletic attributes no other Bears quarterback has ever had, and he ran an offense with the Buckeyes that was more complex than a lot of people thought.

In his first preseason game, a 20-13 win over the Dolphins, Fields completed 14 of 20 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, and the 30-yard touchdown to tight end Jesse James was obviously the primary topic of conversation. Nagy and his staff dialed up “Y Leak” for Fields, which confused a Dolphins defense already primed to deal with Fields as a runner (he gained 33 yards and scored a touchdown on five carries), and that was great.

Watch: Justin Fields uses “Y Leak” for his first NFL touchdown pass

But the throw that should have Bears fans excited about their new quarterback wasn’t a schemed-open look — it was a 15-yard pass to receiver Justin Hardy with time running out in the first half.

The Bears had the ball at their own 42-yard line down 13-0, and it was time to put something on the board. The Dolphins were running two-deep on third-and-5, so Fields knew he’d have a decent shot at anything intermediate, especially after the safeties stayed up and the Dolphins showed zone. Hardy was in the right slot, defended by cornerback Nik Needham, and he ran a complementary out route to Riley Ridley’s go route. The hot route if Fields got in trouble was the left-to-right crosser from Jon’Vea Johnson.

Fields broke the pocket pretty quickly, and gave a quick cursory glance to Hardy as he ran downfield. Mostly, he kept his eyes on Johnson and the crosser, making the Dolphins think he was telegraphing the hot route. But the plan was to throw the ball to Hardy as Hardy adjusted to Fields leaving the pocket, and eventually, Hardy left Needham behind.

Which was all Fields needed.

Fields said after the game that he saw Hardy open at the last second before the throw, and while that may be true, he also had an eye on the deeper, tougher route throughout his pre-throw phase. That he made the throw after his receiver adjusted to his own mobility tells you a lot about how his targets are connecting with Fields — both figuratively and literally.

Nagy was asked after the game how Fields could best upset the plan to have Andy Dalton start Week 1 of the regular season against the Rams.

“Keep stacking days like he had today and understanding that, again in this whole process and this plan as we go, what’s the ultimate goal for us as an offense? Scoring touchdowns, right. So keep leading the team down, keep getting first downs, keep getting touchdowns. Let us be able to see the whys behind everything, right? Why did that happen. And the more times that you have things happen because of that player, meaning Justin or that player because of Andy or that player because of [running back David Montgomery or whoever, we know that and we see that.

“It makes it hard on us and we are going to do whatever is best in the end — ultimately in the end we are always going to do what’s best for the Chicago Bears, right. Here we are in Week 1, and I just think we all understand that it was a great first day for Justin at that position. He did awesome. We love that. Now let’s put it together and keep working and improve it and stay consistent with it and let’s take it in the next game when you’re back out there.

“We understand these other guys that didn’t play very much, they want to play a little bit more next week, too, and do their thing. We are looking for the identity of this offense, and how we can be the best that we can be.”

If the Bears want to be the best they can be on offense, it’s already clear that Justin Fields should be the starter right now. Yes, he’ll make his share of mistakes, but he can also make throws and do things that neither Dalton or Nick Foles could not dream of doing at this point in their careers (or ever, for that matter). Nagy and his staff need to bet on the upside, trust the floor, and make the call.