Through the first six weeks of the 2022 NFL season, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields completed 63 of 115 attempts (54.8%) for 869 yards (7.6 yards per attempt), four touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 72.7 — the third-worst in the NFL behind only Kenny Pickett of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baker Mayfield of the Carolina Panthers.
From that, you would not be incorrect in assuming that Fields was prone to the same issues that led to his underwhelming 2021 rookie season, in which he completed 159 of 270 passes (58.9%) for 1,870 yards (6.9 YPA), seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a passer rating of 73.2, the fifth-worst in the NFL.
Then, after a 17-7 loss to the Washington Commanders on Thursday, October 13, the Bears had a mini=bye in which to figure things out between Fields, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, and the entire staff. Whatever happened in the rooms at Halas Hall in that time between October 14 and Chicago’s next game on Monday, October 24 against the New England Patriots, a light went on for Fields, and it’s stayed on ever since.
In the three games since the mini-bye, Fields has carved up the Patriots, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Miami Dolphins for 47 completions on 72 attempts (65.3%), 453 yards (6.5 YPA), six touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 104.7, which is the ninth-best in the NFL.
Moreover, Fields has been a three-week revelation as a runner. He gained 281 yards and scored one touchdown on 21 carries in the first six weeks of the season, and then, in the last three weeks, he’s put up 320 yards and scored three touchdowns on 24 carries. This included Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins, in which Fields set the NFL’s regular-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game with 178 yards on 15 carries. Fields also completed 17 of 28 passes for 123 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 106.7.
This is not an example of a quarterback beating up on bad defenses. The Patriots and Cowboys have two of the NFL’s best, and though the Dolphins have underperformed to their talent this season, there’s enough there to complicate things for anybody.
After the Dolphins game, which still went 35-32 against Chicago, Miami head coach Mike McDaniel talked about how much his defense was allegedly prepared for Fields as a runner — to no avail, as it turned out.
“That was a big point of emphasis going into the game, just knowing how he’s really helped really change that offense’s complexion the last couple weeks,” McDaniel said. “So, you do your best. There was a couple missed tackles live that I saw that you’d love to have. But ultimately, you just have to continue to stress rush lanes, and we’ve got to improve on our plan that we were trying to execute, that type of – you run into those type of players once in a while in the National Football League, and you’ve got to be able to take away what they’re doing really well. We were able to do that for probably the first three quarters, but I’m just happy that we did in the fourth.”
As McDaniel intimated, it’s the entire picture of Fields’ abilities that have changed Chicago’s offense radically for the better. Let’s get into a deep dive about how that’s happened.
Helping Fields out with the concepts he prefers.
One of the most revolting things about Matt Nagy’s time with Fields under his mentorship was the extent to which Nagy refused to design and call the things that make Fields a better passer.
Justin Fields had the NFL’s highest passer rating with 138.5 on designed rollouts, and the Bears called them on just 19 of Fields’ attempts.
Matt Nagy is awful, Part 536,209,364.
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) May 31, 2022
That stat comes from the good folks at Sports Info Solutions, who also tell us that through the first eight weeks of the 2022 season, Fields had 30 dropbacks on designed rollouts (only Daniel Jones of the Giants has more with 35), and on those dropbacks, Fields completed 11 passes on 24 attempts for 135 yards. Not spectacular, but Getsy was fully in his bag on Fields’ first such touchdown this season — an 18-yarder to tight end Cole Kmet at the start of the second quarter.
Fields executed counter play-action to running back Khalil Hebert, then rolled to his right, and then hit Kmet, who was wide open on a leak route across the formation against Miami’s Cover-0 defense. If you’re facing a defense that has no hesitation about running Cover-0 on first-and-10, counter boot is a pretty good response.
“It’s just part of the play,” Fields said. “We’ve had that play in since camp. We’re just working on that ball handling, and of course, you know, just selling the fake. The running back has to sell it, too. Khalil did a great job on that. Something we talked about earlier in the week. Just great execution all the way around.”
Over the last three games, Fields has thrown three touchdowns and no interceptions with play-action in the pocket, which is another bit of help Nagy didn’t seem to want to give him.
Most of Fields’ play-action attempts this season have been shorter passes, but on this 36-yard play against the Cowboys to receiver Darnell Mooney, watch how the combination of play-action to Herbert, and receiver Equanimeous St. Brown running a vertical route to the right side, messed with Dallas’ defense. Cornerback Trevon Diggs seemed to think that Mooney was running a crossing route from right to left, so when Mooney rolled back to the corner, he was wide open.
“Geez. I mean, dude is a baller,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said of Fields after the game. “Dude is a baller. He was making some plays in the pass game, as well. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the success that he’s finding. He’s finding himself in this league, and I think people are starting to recognize more, the more he gets out and has those opportunities to play.”
Passing to set up the run.
With most hyper-mobile quarterbacks, we talk about running to set up the passing game. Bot on Fields’ most explosive play against the Dolphins, a 61-yard touchdown run with 11:30 left in the third quarter, the inverse was true. This was a mesh concept over the middle with a deep over and a vertical route to the right, and at the snap, Miami dropped seven defenders into coverage. Fields could have worked through Miami’s Cover-3, but he decided to run, albeit with a couple of interesting wrinkles.
Instead of just taking off, he faked a pass to Claypool to his right before running. This froze several of Miami’s intermediate defenders, and gave Fields the lane he needed.
McDaniel expressed his displeasure with this later in the third quarter.
Mike McDaniel telling Justin Fields to “Stop it” 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ceg0IwzLzU
— PFF (@PFF) November 6, 2022
“No, I just wanted him to stop scrambling and it was pretty irritating because he didn’t listen at all,” McDaniel said Monday when asked what he told Fields. “He didn’t take the coaching and no, I think our whole team took them serious, because they’re a young, upcoming team that if you take lightly at all, they make you quickly regret that. So they fought exactly how we thought they were going to.
“I think Justin is really starting to get a feel for when he can utilize his full scale of gifts and he’s making plays more and more and becoming more and more difficult to defend. So at that stage of the game I figured no one had asked him to stop it, so I gave that a try. I think other coaches can learn from my experience that he does not listen, so rely on other tactics.”
Mike McDaniel sarcastically explaining why he told Bears QB Justin Fields “stop it” on the sideline during Sunday’s game:
“I just wanted him to stop scrambling, and it was pretty irritating because he didn’t listen at all.” 😂
(🎥 @MiamiDolphins) pic.twitter.com/cV2NjqfNqE
— Will Manso (@WillManso) November 7, 2022
Creating explosive plays as a passer.
Fields is starting to get more comfortable in the pocket, and under pressure, and that’s allowing him to make pinpoint tight-window throws from time to time. This 16-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney with 2:00 left in the first half was a great example. Mooney got open on a slot crosser against Miami’s Cover-1, and though Fields was pressured at the throw, he stayed in the pocket and lifted a dart that only Mooney could get to.
“That’s just man-on-man matchup,” Fields said. “The guy over him [cornerback Xavien Howard], he was already inside leverage, so Dante did a great job protecting the safety [Jevin Holland] from the ball and of course we had great protection up front. Really couldn’t ask for a better play call in that situation, and kudos to the guys up front protecting their butts off all day.”
You love it when a plan comes together, right?
There was also this cross-body deep throw to Chase Claypool from the pocket with 1:35 left in the game. Cornerback Keion Crossen was all over Claypool, and let’s just say that referee Ronald Torbert’s crew might want a do-over on the no-call for pass interference.
“I wasn’t sure during the play, but after I saw it on the billboard, it was definitely PI for sure,” Fields said. “Just missed it. Can’t do anything about it. Just have to move on to the next play.”
Alas. All you can do is to create more shot plays in the passing game to make up for the ones you don’t get.
Putting it all together.
Fields has a pretty favorable slate of pass defenses in his near future. The 3-6 Bears face the Detroit Lions next Sunday, followed by the Atlanta Falcons in Week 11. The New York Jets and Green Bay Packers could prove to be sterner tests in Weeks 12 and 13, and then, the Bears get their bye — at which point we’ll know a lot more about this Justin Fields Transformation, and Getsy will have another extra week to throw more of the playbook at his quarterback.
“I think we are just really maximizing our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses right now, and going into a bye week [the mini-bye after the Commanders game], we wanted to focus on that and look at our roster and making sure that we did that,” Eberflus said after the Dolphins game of Fields’ development. “I think we are doing a lot of good things in protection to help ourselves moving the pocket and giving sight lines and vision lines for the quarterback that he likes. That is really good for him, and he’s doing a great job with that.
“He still obviously has the ability to use his feet when things break down. We saw that today on a few third downs, just from me being a defensive guy, you know, in the pass, that’s very difficult. You have to send five guys. You have to have a guy for him that limits your coverages. It creates a lot of situations, and sometimes you’ll send more than that just to fill up the gaps. So it’s a problem. So he’s been really good at executing.”
As for Fields, he’s already looking to do more.
“I’m definitely looking for more yards every time I’m passing the ball. Just trying to put the team in the best position I can put them in. Of course, just trying to stay on track, first and second down, trying to make it third-and-manageable for my team. We have been great on third down in the past few weeks, so if we can keep doing that, we’ll keep having success.”
If Fields can keep defenses on a string with his unique abilities to mix the run and pass, the Bears will indeed keep having success — and we’ll come closer to the Justin Fields we’ve always hoped to see.
