He took over when Dalton hurt his knee in Week 2 and was made the permanent starter two weeks later. See also George Kittle’s groin injury is bad news for Trey Lance I just knew if I worked hard, then I would put myself in a good position to be on the field.’’ ‘‘I knew that wasn’t gonna the whole year. ‘‘I wasn’t really fazed by that,’’ Fields told the Sun-Times. That’s why the Bears desperately promised Andy Dalton the starting job so he would sign with them, then hatched a plan to keep Fields on the bench all season when they drafted him a month later. None of that happened last season amid the mismatched puzzle pieces of then-GM Ryan Pace’s personnel, then-coach Matt Nagy’s offense and Fields’ skills.Īdding to the dysfunction, the choices Pace and Nagy made to try to save their jobs weren’t always aligned with what was best for Fields and a future they wouldn’t be part of. He must stay healthy, the supporting cast must prove viable and the offense must be productive. The worst thing that could happen for the Bears this season would be to get to the end of it and still not have a verdict on Fields. And it begins in the Bears’ season opener Sunday against the 49ers. That trek is long and treacherous, and it inevitably goes through the Packers. They need to know by the end of this season whether Fields can carry them and fulfill Poles’ vow to ‘‘take the North and never give it back.’’ That’s a healthy state of mind, but it doesn’t change the Bears’ reality. I know I’ve got God with me, so I’m good with whatever.’’ The more you work yourself, the more you’re gonna be good at it and you’re gonna be better. ‘‘I’m not worried about their timetable,’’ he said, gesturing toward the front office upstairs as he sat in a conference room at Halas Hall.
But he’ll go at his own pace, regardless of the Bears’ urgency to make a decision about him. He knows his rookie season wasn’t good - ‘‘For sure,’’ he said - and a variety of factors made evaluating him cloudy, to use Poles’ word. So if general manager Ryan Poles isn’t convinced by the end of this season, he probably will have a high draft pick with which to choose his own quarterback.įields wants to operate above the pressure. In his rookie season, the Bears gave him an average of 2.4 seconds and allowed him to be pressured more often than all but four quarterbacks.Īnd in the big picture? The people who brought him in got fired. In a literal sense, he absolutely can’t count on getting three seconds to throw. The best ones read defenses so quickly that time becomes irrelevant, and they often unleash so much firepower so early in their careers that it renders moot any conversation about their place in the long-term plan.įor Fields, however, the clock is ticking quicker. Quarterbacks usually have less than three seconds after the snap to decipher the many moving parts on the field and about three seasons to prove their franchises should bet their future on them. That’s the challenge Justin Fields faces this season with the Bears: bending time in his favor. The world spins faster for quarterbacks, and the ones who have the almost superhuman ability to slow it down are the ones who conquer and endure.
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