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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Alyssa Barbieri

Bear Necessities: Mike Martz believes Justin Fields has been set up for failure

Quarterback Justin Fields is entering a pivotal second season with the Bears. Following an up-and-down rookie season, the expectation is Fields will take a step forward in his development.

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There have been concerns about Fields’ supporting cast, which includes an unproven receiving corp and questionable offensive line. Which is why some are doubting Fields heading into 2022.

Former Bears offensive coordinator and current 33rd Team contributor Mike Martz ranked the NFC North quarterbacks. While the top two don’t come as a surprise — Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins — it was a bit shocking to see Martz rank Fields dead last behind Detroit’s Jared Goff.

Fields is a guy that makes a lot of mistakes and is not particularly accurate at times. He’s not a quick read-and-react guy, and he’s on a horrendous team. But I don’t know if I’ve seen an offense that bad in talent since the 0-16 Detroit Lions (in 2008). They just don’t have anybody there. … It’s a bad football team right now.

But Martz didn’t stop with his criticism of Fields for the upcoming 2022 season. He believes Fields’ career has already been derailed given he’s landed in Chicago.

It’s going to be a rough career for (Fields) there. And I’ve seen a lot of really good players go to bad teams, and then their career just never takes off, and I think that’s what will happen with Fields.

While concerns about Fields are justified this season, it’s far too early to declare that he’s going to have a rough career. Especially given we’re just in the first year of the new regime.

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