Justin Fields, What Went Wrong?? 😔

I want to preface this article by saying:

Not only am I a life long Bears fan, but I have watched and rooted for Justin Fields since he was a senior in high school in 2017.

From being a 5 star recruit, going back and forth with Trevor Lawrence as the #1 player in the nation, to committing to Georgia. From me making my first ever football video on my YouTube channel about him in 2018, to him transferring to Ohio State and setting the college world on fire, losing only 2 games, both in the College Football Playoffs.

To him miraculously falling in the draft, and watching MY Chicago Bears trade up to draft him. Turning the 2021 Draft into the most exciting draft of my lifetime as a Bears fan.

From watching him flash greatness as a rookie, to barely falling short of an NFL record for most rushing yards by a QB in a season in NFL history. All the way to 2023 where before the season started, the Bears fanbase was sure they had their future franchise QB, making him one of the most beloved Bears players in my lifetime.

Then 2024… He’s traded away for a 6th round draft pick to be the Pittsburg Steelers Backup QB Behind Russell Wilson, in hopes to fight & crawl his way back into being an NFL Starter.

I find myself asking: What on Earth went wrong??

Lets take it back to his rookie year.

The Chicago Bears were fresh off another disappointing wild card loss, and QB Mitch Trubisky was on his way out the door. Ironically, Bears fans had hoped to land Russell Wilson, as Ryan Pace put in a massive offer for the Super Bowl Winning QB. Seahawks declined the offer, and Pace went on to sign Andy Dalton. Justin Fields was a FOR SURE top 5 pick in my mind, until pre-draft when his stock started to fall. It came out that he had epilepsy, but it had not affected him much since a kid. He did end up wearing dark visors quite a bit in practice and pre-game to help reduce the light in his eyes. It also was said he had a slow release & have flaws in his mechanics that all needed to be fixed in the NFL. He fell all the way to pick #11 and Ryan Pace traded up to draft him.

Bears fans EXPLODED with joy we’ve never felt before in an NFL draft.

Ironically, that was the start, of the end.

Ryan Pace & Matt Nagy were on the hot seat, and Fields was their last ditch effort to keep their jobs, and for some reason they STILL found a way to butcher his rookie year. The original plan was for Justin to sit a year and learn and develop the same way Patrick Mahomes did. But in week 2, Andy Dalton was injured and instead of putting in Nick Foles, Justin Fields played the majority of that game and clearly didn’t look that ready. He threw an ugly late game Interception but the Defense lead by Roquan Smith came in clutch for the win.

The following week was the week that Matt Nagy lost his job, figuratively as he was not fired until the end of the season. In Justin Fields first career start, Matt Nagy put Justin Fields in shotgun the ENTIRE game against the elite Browns DL. No Max protection, no Tight Ends chipping, no RBs in for help. Nagy put Fields back there to die, and he was sacked 9 times.

Talk about an ABYSMAL start to his career. Justin would get better little by little, game after game, putting together some super star flashing moments vs the 49ers and the Steelers. Matt Nagy & Ryan Pace were fired, but Bears fans were left with hope in Justin Fields, still. The hope was a 2nd coaching staff would pick up where Nagy left off in developing Fields.

Right when we thought things would get better, they only got worse. New Bears General Manager Ryan Poles inherited a terrible cap situation with an aging roster and wasted no time getting to work. Within 10 months, he let 36 free agents walk away without replacing them with quality players. He traded Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, all 3 defensive captains. Poles was doing his job to rebuild the Bears in his image, from scratch. But Justin Fields would end up being the sacrificial lamb to this Rebuild.

Ryan Poles ripped the roster to shreds, leaving Justin to fight for his life behind a horrible O Line, no WRs, and the Leagues WORST Defense, which also was statistically the worst Bears defense in franchise history. In 2022, Justin was sacked a league high 55 times in 15 games! Instead of developing like a normal NFL QB, learning how to sit in the pocket and let it rip and pick apart the defense, Justin had to learn how to run for his freaking LIFE. Even when he DID sit in the pocket, or even evade pressure and get the ball off, his makeshift WR room would drop the pass, or fumble it after the catch. It was an absolute nightmare.

Now thats just on the surface, and I’m going to dig a little deeper. Instead of developing mentally to be a great Quarterback, Fields developed an internal clock in his mind that made him take off running the second the line started breaking down. THIS is where his offensive coordinator Luke Getsy comes into play.

Remember 3 paragraphs ago when I said we hoped the new Coordinator would pick up where Nagy left off? Boy, were we wrong. Luke Getsy decided to change EVERYTHING Fields had done before, and mold him into some Aaron Rodgers wanna be. At Ohio State Fields started with his right foot forward. So Matt Nagy had him keep what was comfortable, and you could see his timing get quicker as his rookie year passed. Luke Getsy had him switch to his left foot forward to match his offensive timing. I’m not a Quarterback mechanics expert, but they also tried to fix the hitch in his throwing motion, and just threw him all out of wack.

Maybe this would have worked out and he would have gotten better, if ya know, he wasn’t surrounded by literal practice squad talent. Blend all of this together and Fields never learned how to play on schedule, within structure, on time. An absolute pivotal year for Fields career down the drain for the sake of Ryan Poles rebuilding. He turned into a pure running quarterback, and was SO electric while doing so, that us Bears fans ignored the red flags brewing between Fields and Luke Getsy.

Before we get into the 2023 season when the wheels fell off, I want to add 1 more layer to the cake. Bears head coach Matt Eberflus is an old school, hard nose style defensive coach. His HITS philosophy was a culture that dates far back, even to the 2006 Lovie Smith lead Bears. Except it was used for DEFENSE. Eberflus decided to apply it to offense for some reason, including the QB.

HITS stands for Hustle, Intensity, Turnovers, Smart.

I get the “Smart” part, as QBs definitely need to be smart. But do we really need to judge and measure a Quarterbacks Hustle? This isn’t high school anymore. Intensity? How does a Quarterback practice Intensity?

Heres the most controversial one. Turnovers. For a defensive philosophy, taking the ball away from the offense is literally the main goal. But on offense, Flus flips it around to preventing turnovers. Makes sense in theory, on paper. “Hey QB, don’t turn the ball over”. Yeah, no duh. Maybe, just MAYBE its not the best idea in the world to have your young QB have it in the back of his mind that the head coach is watching and monitoring you to NOT turn the ball over. Thats how you develop a scared QB, and it clearly showed in Justin Fields but I’ll circle back to that in a moment.

Ryan Poles made a trade that landed Justin Fields the best WR of his career in DJ Moore, and a solid Rookie Right Tackle in Darnell Wright. At the time, it seemed the Bears offense was ready to take off, but little did we know too much damage had already been done, and the coaching staff did NOT have this team prepared to compete.

Bears got flat out embarrassed week 1 at home vs the Packers. Week 2 was more competitive but ended on a Fields Pick-6. Week 3 was rock bottom as the Chiefs made the Bears look like a Little League Team.

Justin Fields looked exactly what you would expect he’d look like if you read everything I described as his wonderful development program.

He looked like a guy who had PTSD from all the sacks that was scared to stay in the pocket, yet his coach Luke Getsy told him to stay in the pocket. But also, his Head Coach told him he’s not allowed to turn the ball over. All while still learning his new drop back and new mechanics he’s never had before.

Add in having a TERRIBLE play caller, who by the way, called the exact same screen play 3 times in 1 drive to the point where the Bucs D Lineman knew the play and easily picked off Justin for a touchdown to seal the game.

Fields looked like a deer in headlights. He had no idea what to do. He didn’t trust himself, he just held onto the ball and took sacks instead of throwing the ball. He looked like he was scared to run, which he was ELITE at doing. He looked like a shell of himself.

I felt genuinely upset. My favorite team drafted my favorite player, and absolutely RUINED him. Everything about those 1st 3 weeks SCREAMED they ruined him.

By then, Fields was fed up. In his interview, he said he was going to just play how he knew how to play, and basically admitted that he tried to change too much about his game and that it prohibited being the QB he knew he could be. He got better as the year went on, had some AMAZING 4 TD games vs the Broncos and the Commanders, some great games vs the Lions & Cardinals, and went out on top at Soldier Field vs the Falcons, lighting them up in a snowy game with arguably his BEST Career Game being his LAST game at soldier Field in a Bears helmet. Bears fans had hope again, and it seemed Fields had figured it all out.

Then week 18 happened, and once again coaches failed to prepare the Bears just like week 1, and the rival green bay packers spanked the Bears like a little kid.

So now, after everything Fields has went through, he gets traded to the Steelers for a 6th round pick to be a backup, while Caleb Williams gets to walk into a BETTER situation than Fields ever had, with the Addition of Keenan Allen, Gerald Everette & D’Andre Swift added into the mix of DJ Moore and Cole Kmet. He gets to play under new Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron who not only has PROVEN success as an NFL playcaller, unlike Luke Getsy who was just a Quarterbacks coach, but Shane played a major part in helping Geno Smith go from a career backup QB to a franchise QB seemingly overnight.

I’m not saying Fields is perfect at all. I’m not saying he is fault-free for his mistakes. At the end of the day this is HIS career and HE is the one going out on Sundays to lead the Bears. But truth be told, flaws and all, Fields was a victim of being drafted to a dysfunctional organization that had NO idea how to develop a QB.

Justin Fields was the Sacrificial lamb in the Chicago Bears rebuild that Caleb Williams gets to reap the benefits from, and for him and his beloved fans, that ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! Its one of the saddest NFL Career stories I’ve seen.

As a Bears fan, I think we’ll finally get it right this time with Caleb. But, as a Fields fan, let me say this. Life isn’t fair, and if ANYONE can handle the situation he’s in, it’s Fields. He’s a warrior.

People can bring up his stats, bring up all the sacks, the turnovers, all the mistakes. They are all valid, irrefutable points. But I saw a kid who took the worst roster in the NFL in 2022 and made it an electrifying season. I saw a guy who went through adversity and had the wheels fall off to start the 2023 season, but bounced back and had some of the best games of his career.

He never complained, never cried, never blamed his teammates, never blamed his coach or GM, never criticized fans, media, or anyone else. He simply put his head down, worked his ass off, contributed to the community and gave his all to Chicago.

I think theres plenty damage still there that needs to be fixed, but I know what he CAN be. He is only 25! This is NOT the end of the story of Justin Fields, this is NOT a sad story of a bust, this is the beginning of a longer story.

I’m the type of person that believes everything happens for a reason, and Bears GM Ryan Poles made sure to send Justin Fields into a good situation. After all thats the least he could have done after destroying the kid. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is one of the best in the business, and Fields gets to work with one of his childhood idols, Russell Wilson, who he’s said he modeled his game after.

Fields is a competitor, and I believe he will do everything he can to take that starting spot from Russ. If Russ isn’t lighting it up for the Steelers and Fields gets the slightest chance to get in, I truly believe he will take the opportunity and run with it. And NEVER look back. Russell Wilson is 35, and Justin Fields is 25. Russ provides the Steelers with an immediate starter, but who knows. Maybe Fields, like Geno Smith but younger and more talented, can turn his career around and end up being the future Steelers franchise Quarterback to finish out his career.

However it goes, I’ll be a fan of Justin Fields, the player and the person, until the day he hangs it up.

Now, all eyes on Caleb Williams.