Earlier this season, Bears quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko said Justin Fields was his own harshest critic — and that, given the attention paid the quarterback position in Chicago, that was saying something.
Sunday, Fields can be his own biggest advocate. Given the endorsements he’s received from teammates over the past few weeks, that will be saying something, too.
As Fields prepares to try to beat the rival Packers for the first time in his career Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, his teammates have lobbied for him to be considered the Bears’ quarterback of the future.
His inconsistent play has said otherwise at various points this season, but Fields is coming off perhaps the best game of his career. Finishing the season with another strong performance — against a rival that’s trying to beat the Bears for a whopping 10th consecutive time — would be Fields’ best argument to stay. Whether that’s enough is another question.
His teammates, though, have been doing the arguing for him.
“I want him to be the quarterback,” receiver DJ Moore said after the Bears’ 37-17 win against the Falcons in which Fields threw for 268 yards, ran for 45 more and posted two touchdowns. “Now it’s on the higher ups. It’s up to them.”
Thursday night, both safety Jaquan Brisker and defensive tackle Justin Jones posted a Fields social media highlight reel, produced by the NFL, from the Falcons game. Even former teammate Roquan Smith weighed in on Fields’ future, telling the Punch Line Podcast that most people couldn’t name the supporting cast around him.
“If he was in a system where he actually had pieces around him, I think the dude could light it up,” said Smith, whom the Bears traded to the Ravens last year. “He’d be a threat very similar to [presumptive MVP] Lamar [Jackson].”
General manager Ryan Poles can surround Fields with a better supporting cast this offseason by trading out of the Panthers’ No. 1 pick and spending the roughly $62 million of salary cap space he’s expected to have. Or he can keep the No. 1 overall pick and use it on a quarterback, be it USC superstar Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye, and trade Fields.
What he decides to do will affect the direction of the franchise for years to come — keeping Fields would indicate a willingness to extend him for more than the $81 million the Giants gave quarterback Daniel Jones last year — and the careers of both Poles and Fields.
In the meantime, though, Fields said he’s been grateful for the support from his teammates.
“I think that just shows how much we love each other, not only as players but as people outside of the building … ” he said. “You can kind of tell when people really love the game and really are passionate about the game of football. I would say all the guys in the locker room are. When you just see their work ethic, how much they care about the game, how much they care about the team and winning, the team’s success, that just all brings us closer together and focusing on accomplishing one goal as a team.”
The Bears missed their goal of making the playoffs, but they could still finish the season by winning their sixth game in eight tries.
Beat the Packers, and they’ll draw comparisons to last year’s Lions, who ended a late-season surge last year by winning at Lambeau Field to keep them out of the playoffs. They used the win as a springboard toward a playoff season.
The Bears could too. Whether Fields will be a part of next year’s team is for Poles to figure out this offseason. Sunday is Fields’ last chance to state his case.
