Justin Fields is not the Bears’ future at quarterback.
Can we agree on that?
It has been a nice trial run, nearly three full seasons, and that’s enough. He has special skills and tries his hardest, but he’s not the answer.
You can toss in issues such as an extremely dubious coaching staff (especially when it comes to minimizing Fields’ weaknesses and promoting his strengths), a weak offensive line, a lack of multiple skilled players around him and so on. But no matter.
The guy can run like the wind, dodge and twist, etc. But he often takes too long to throw, his vision is dubious, his confusion at times is glaring and he lacks that great quarterback ‘‘magic.’’ As a starter, that is.
But he could — should — be turned into Taysom Hill 2.0. There’s his role model. And it’s a pretty nice one.
Hill, the Saints’ occasional quarterback, is about the same size as Fields — 6-2 and 221 pounds to Fields’ 6-3 and 227 — is fast, is a great athlete and comes into games at key times and really messes up defenses with his skills.
Back in 2017, Hill was an undrafted free agent out of BYU, where he was known as the ‘‘Mormon Missile.’’ He had passed for 6,929 yards and 43 touchdowns and run for 2,815 yards and 32 more.
But would he have been starting-quarterback quality in the NFL, with the necessary killer arm? Nah.
So what could a coach do with a guy like that? The Packers signed him, waived him in the preseason and the Saints picked him up.
Hmm. Time for a makeover.
Hill could run and throw, but he never had caught a pass. But he could learn. And he did. With his basic skills already there, he morphed (in time) into a guy who broke the model for what a quarterback could be by running, passing, receiving, even running back kickoffs and rushing punts (he has blocked two).
Actually, Hill didn’t start something new. He simply is a throwback to another era, back when there were football guys ‘‘who could do it all.’’
Against the Bears on Nov. 5 at the Superdome, Hill caught a two-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Derek Carr in the Saints’ 24-17 victory. The catch made him only the fifth player in NFL history to have at least 10 receiving touchdowns, 10 passing TDs and 10 rushing TDs. The last man to do it was Frank Gifford, 66 years ago. All four who did it before Hill are in the Hall of Fame.
In that Bears-Saints game, Hill also threw a touchdown pass to tight end Juwan Johnson. Though Gifford threw most of his passes on halfback-option plays, Hill usually plays quarterback when he throws — before moving to running back, flanker, tight end, anywhere he can help. As he has said of his position, ‘‘I’m just a football player.’’
Though Hill might be nearing the end of his career — he’s 33 and got out of college at 26 after missing three seasons while on a church mission — Fields is only 24 and has plenty of time to reconstruct himself. He can do it, provided there’s a coach who can help him and Fields himself wants to do it.
Back in the day, Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass, a large, swift, strong runner who surpassed 1,000 yards rushing in a season and could throw a football through a closed and locked barn door, was bandied about as a tight end. Or something. Anything to make use of his athletic skills, which were greater than his quarterbacking skills. But he wasn’t keen on it, and the idea fizzled.
Fields might be that magic gizmo.
The Bears’ last quarterback hope, Mitch Trubisky, has turned into a dud. He has played in five games for the Steelers this season, and they have lost all five. Fields will be another bounce-around-the-league dud if he doesn’t change something about his game and his situation.
With 17 regular-season games, quarterbacks are all but guaranteed to get injured at some point. The Browns already have used four as starters this season, and all four have won games. The last one, Joe Flacco, who will turn 39 in January, beat the Bears on Sunday.
Nick Mullens, Jake Browning, Easton Stick, Tommy DeVito — did you ever think these names would be leading teams? Or that Fields would be descending fast?
His future might not be with the Bears, but it might be somewhere — as a Taysom Hill clone.
