Lombardi: Why Justin Fields will never be a top-20 NFL QB
https://www.vsin.com/lombardi-why-justi ... 20-nfl-qb/I feel bad for Chicago Bears fans. The Bears are a historic franchise, loaded with incredible players and coaches. Now they watch their team in those ugly orange uniforms and realize they are about to embark on another four-year journey of pretending they have fixed their quarterback position. Justin Fields started his 16th game last night and normally when evaluating a quarterback, it takes 20 games to accurately judge their long-term success. With Fields, we don’t have to watch another four games: The verdict is in, and it’s not good. Fields is a gifted athlete and runner. He can throw the ball a mile, but he lacks the instincts, rhythm the timing and most of all the accuracy to throw the ball into tight windows when facing pressure.
Older Bears fans remember Bobby Douglas, the flame-throwing left hander, who could run all over the field, yet when he had to fire the ball with timing and precision, he wasn’t able to do so. Douglas was like Nuke Laloosh from “Bull Durham” -- great fastball, no control. Douglas, a former second-round pick of the Bears, started 45 games and completed 42% of his passes. Remember, Douglas played when running quarterbacks were not in vogue, when he carried the ball 141 times in 1972, he was the outlier of the league. Bears fans also remember they won only four games that season under the direction of head coach Abe Gibron and by 1975 Douglas was traded and no longer a starter. Fields is much like Douglass, only this era of football is more acceptable to quarterbacks that run. The innate problems that prevented Douglass from playing will be the same problems that will keep Fields from ever being a top-20 NFL quarterback.
Some might say, why are you being so hard on Fields, he had the Bears on the 5-yard line with a chance to win the game? That’s true, but when a quarterback averages 10 completions a game and relies primarily on his running skills, what do you expect his longevity to be?
Fields is a one-look-and-dash quarterback. When the Bears run play-action, or any type of boots, he can find the open man and (depending on his footwork) deliver an accurate throw. Fields has a funky motion, poor mechanics that don’t hold up under pressure and struggles to throw the ball inside unless the wide receiver is wide open. He only throws the ball when the receiver is wide open, like when he was at Ohio State, which never happens in the NFL. He is willing to throw the ball outside on deep passes, like his 40-yard TD to Dante Pettis, because it’s doesn’t require processing the coverage. This has nothing to do with intelligence, rather, instincts and feel for the game. And from watching Fields at Ohio State and now, he hasn’t been able to show improvement.
The questions the Bears must address is: Is there an offense Fields can run successfully? Could he run the Eagles/Oklahoma Sooners offense? Maybe, and the Bears are trying to use a version of that offense. They are trying desperately to run plays that highlight his skill set athletically -- and the results are not good. They have the lowest amount of passing attempts in the league, the lowest number of yards passing and are 28th in the yards per attempt passing. In three of their six games, the Bears have gained more yards running than passing. Some might say the talent level around Fields is bad, which causes him to struggle. Yes and no. Yes, the Bears need a better offensive line, more explosive playmakers on offense, but Fields struggles to execute even when the receiver is wide open. All the chatter about the talent around him, is simply avoiding the obvious answer that I am sure Bears fans don’t want to admit -- yet.
Chicago will play hard, compete and will cover spreads, especially when the Bears face another bad quarterback like they did last night. Their margin for error is so small that it’s almost impossible for them to win games. Carson Wentz wasn’t very good -- and that is being kind. Throwing for 99 yards, not having any explosive passes over 20 yards, and taking three sacks. What saved Wentz and the Commanders was they protected the ball and avoided losing, which saved them. Both teams have short- and long-term issues at quarterback and until they solve them, they will be playing in ugly games.
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