Justin Fields, I Am Sincerely Sorry
Coming from a Bears fan, Justin Fields doesn’t deserve this. He doesn’t deserve to be in this abysmal situation when everything could have gone in the exact opposite direction.
After finally drafting a quarterback who looks like he has the capability to be a franchise quarterback, the Chicago Bears have seemingly forgotten that they should probably cater the team to his success. In the modern NFL, that’s the most straightforward path to success. Get your guy and put the right pieces around him. We did the hard part and now we’re completely failing on the second part. Pure embarrassment for any Chicago Bear fan.
It starts back with the selection of the coaching staff. We didn’t look to sign an offensive minded head coach. Matt Eberflus sure is experienced and probably has a solid defensive scheme, but the only way to win games at this point in the NFL is to be a threat offensively. Was he really the guy to bring the best out of the strong arm and mobility Justin Fields boasts? I’m not convinced.
Luke Getsy, the ex-Packers quarterback coach, as the new offensive coordinator certainly isn’t a bad idea. However, he’s only really worked with Aaron Rodgers his entire NFL career. I’d guarantee a lot of coaches would have relative success in that spot. With Eberflus mainly focused on the defensive side of the ball, the entire weight of the offense rests on Getsy’s shoulders. Is he really the best candidate to develop a young, raw, quarterback in the NFL? I’m not so sure.
Lastly, but easily the worst aspect of our entire offseason, is the players we actually brought in. Chickster laid out a plan for the Bears before the draft and free agency that would make sense to any NFL fan: work on the offensive line, get some receivers and let’s see what Fields can do this year. Instead, we took a pair of defensive players with our first two picks and then a 25-year-old wide receiver that’s supposedly just seen as “mature.”
What hurts more is all the rookie receivers that we could have had with those two picks in the second round. Christian Watson, George Pickens, Skyy Moore, Alec Pierce, and even Jalen Tolbert or David Bell were all options that I would have preferred than our actual selections of Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker and Velus Jones Jr. Any young quarterback needs a lot of help to succeed and if the best help our front office could get him was an elderly citizen who was only moderately productive in college, that ain’t it.
We had free agency too and somehow, we messed that up. Sure, Davante Adams might have been a pipe dream but it’s not like other options weren’t available. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Russell Gage, Cedrick Wilson, Christian Kirk and a few others were all realistic viable options. Who did the Bears end up with? Bryon Pringle and Equanimeous St. Brown. If someone told me that before free agency I would have laughed. Two guys who at their absolute best are each a very low-level wide receiver 2. And that’s the absolute best case. It’s more likely they’re third string level anyway.
The fact of the matter is we simply haven’t done enough for the success of Justin Fields. Fields is a Rolls Royce. But for the king to run, you have to maintain it well too. That’s the part where we have failed. Hopefully it’s only this season and we improve in the future. But knowing my franchise, we probably won’t. Come the season, I’m still going to hope that Ryan Poles somehow drafted two Pro Bowl defensive players with those picks and Velus Jones Jr. is the next Jerry Rice. It’s what us Bears fans do best.
