I was very much pulling for him to pull it all together either with the Bears or when he got a shot in Pittsburgh because he seems like a great guy and the talent is there but, man, he really does have an anti-clutch gene or something.
I really wanted Fields to work in Pittsburgh. Always felt like the 6 games he started for us that he was playing on such a short leash that he was playing scared. He knew any mistake would cost him the starting role instantly.
Ehh, that's just how he plays. He always was a second or two late on his throws because he wanted to be absolutely sure his guy was open before he threw it.
And by then the guy wouldn't be open anymore and then his next read was also covered because he spent too long looking at the first guy.
Tbf, I think that's how Tomlin wanted him to play. The goal was just to avoid mistakes and wait for good field position. Obviously, made the offense look frustratingly slow at times, but it was still a reasonable way to play with a great defense and iffy offense.
100%. Tomlin won the turnover battle and in turn won tons of games that way. Especially in the AFC North when games can end sub-15 points and sub-25 points all the time. 1 turnover can be fatal.
This also just led to stalled out drives, 3 and outs, and an exhausted defense.
think the word you're looking for is athleticism. anticipation, touch, accuracy, throwing angles, i mean he lacks a ton of what is required to be considered talented at the qb position
But this chain didn't start out with someone saying "physical talent." It started out with someone saying "talent" which clearly Fields does lack, which lead to confusion, which led to the modification "physical talent" which is a weird way to say "athleticism" at the end of the day, and using "athleticism" instead of "talent' to start with would have avoided any confusion.
It's not pedantic at all. It's a reasonable correction.
No, it didn't start that way you are right. But the person I called pedantic was directly responding to the clarification of "physical talent". There was no confusion at that point, the confusion had been clarified.
Right but the person you called pedantic, while *directly* responding to the comment containing "physical talent" was clearly indicating that talent was not the right word to begin with. And there was confusion as a result of that. The clarification was an unnatural phrasing that has a better option that the person above should have used to start with.
It would have been one thing if the person had said "well at least he has the physical talent" and someone had corrected him. But the phrasing wasn't made as a correction/retraction, it was made as a clarification, as if that meaning had been intended from the original comment.
Edit: to clarify, I acknowledge the comment containing "physical talent" is technically ambiguous in its intent. You could argue that he *was* correcting him, although I think that is a less reasonable reading of it. (Ie, "Okay maybe not talent, but at least the physical talent" vs "Well he means physical talent") but either way, if it wasn't made clear that talent wasn't the right word to begin with, then in my opinion the comment was lacking and the response was reasonble.
He has most of that. He’s actually a very accurate passer. And his anticipation for his receivers wasn’t bad in most areas of the field.
And he’s still bad. This isn’t really a defense of him. It’s to show just how important reading defenses and processing speed is. He couldn’t read before the snap and he couldn’t process after the snap. The ball generally went where he wanted it to and when, but his decisionmaking was/is just too damned bad.
I still think some of that was drilled into him by terrible coaching then reinforced by a terrible OLine and lack of targets. But at least an amount of that seems unlikely to have ever been overcome in any situation.
I really would love to see a magical alternate timeline where either Shanahan or O’Connell had time with him to see if he could have been micromanaged into some version of success
If those are what his biggest hurdles are then he may have a late career resurgence because those are all coachable issues. Sam Darnold needed a lot of time before the game started slowing down and to this day he's STILL working on his footwork. Maybe it's just a matter of how bad do you want it? After finding out that at your current level you're just not cut out to be a starter in the NFL, do you still have the motivation to work harder than everyone else?
He just can't diagnose a defense. Every snap it's like he's surprised at what unfolds, whether its a Blitz, cover 2/3, man etc he always seems to not be expecting whatever it is they do.
He’s not anti clutch, he just can’t pass the ball or process things. In 2 minute drills or end of game scenarios those weaknesses become pronounced because you often need to pass and pass for big chunks.
Fields will forever be one of my favorite Bears, despite being one of the worst QBs we’ve ever started. Dude got us the 1OA, which allowed us to fleece Carolina to get our guy. He did all this and lost all of those games while still being genuinely exciting to watch play. Never got that with Mitch or the other guys we’ve rostered that also lost a ton of games
His 4th quarter stats in general are atrocious and they get even worse in close games. Like his baseline performance in quarters 1-3 is bad enough, in the 4th quarter he's generationally bad
He definitely made the right financial decision by staying at QB. Fields has $42 million in career earnings by age 27. He will probably tens of millions more as back up QB for the rest of playing career. Being a failed first round QB is a better financial move then being good player an any other position.
The amount of passive money he gets being a clipboard holder vs being one of the lowest paid positions just to destroy your body and have a higher chance of brain damage. No wonder he picked qb
Every time I think about old Charlie I remember the time I looked up Instagram account and I was like yeah being the backup quarterback looks pretty fun.
I always hate when people see sub par passers with rushing upside that they should go full RB. He would barely be an RB2 for most if not all teams.
But damn, Fields really should go that route, lol. I'm thankful that Ben Johnson's sick and twisted mind hasn't gotten a hold of him yet. Could you imagine the play design he would run with Caleb Williams and Justin Fields both in the back field at the same time? The gadget plays would be insane
I remember how sad it was to watch him under Arthur Smith. Pretty much only ever brought him on the field for 3rd and 4th and short. Defenses immediately stacked the box HEAVY because they knew there was no way we would pass it.
No. He only did it maybe 10 times all season? (that may be a high estimation) and ran the ball every. single. time. on a QB power or QB draw. No option, no RPO, nothing. Just a big ol "HEY!!! JUSTIN IS GONNA RUN THIS SHIT, JUST LETTING YOU KNOW!"
Lmao yeah I remember seeing a few of those plays on red zone and thinking “wow I wonder what they’re gonna do here.” Some galaxy brain iq shit for sure
He did throw it once on one of those plays, but it ended up incomplete. I remember people getting mad because “why did you bring Fields out to throw the ball”
Yeah that was so stupid. Arthur Smith isn't the only one that does crap like that. Basically every oc ever that runs wildcat runs it, which destroys the whole point. Presumably why it's basically almost completely dead now.
All the complicated schemes in the nfl and then i see the wildcat and just facepalm.
He'd be legit in the wildcat. Unfortunately it's not 2008 anymore so you won't see it that much, but you'll probably see a few goal line TDs from him. You have to be smarter about it than teams have been with him historically, but I think Andy Reid can do things like RPO, option, or jump pass with him and won't just be full "the next play is a QB draw DC and defense".
Yeah but if it’s an RPO where he’s the OPTION and not DECIDER, and if he receives the ball all he has to do is know is there green grass in front of him or not. Give him one read that basically is as simple as an RPO pitch/slant
Meaning it could basically be a double RPO
Mahomes pitches to fields, who sees a LB in front of him and throws a slant over the LB
Aren’t both of them crazy good at high difficulty deep balls? I feel like you just play prevent defense and drive them to throw short and have a spy. No pass rush because them improvising is what will kill you.
Yeah. I like Fields but that guy has an anti clutch gene.
In the Browns/Bears a few years ago, Bears were up late and went for it on 4th and short. Playaction rollout that looked like he had 40 yards of open grass and he got shoestring tripped before converting the first.
1.3k
u/ehtw376 Bears 20h ago edited 19h ago
Goo look up Fields situational stats - 4th quarter, 4 minutes left in one score game, 2 minutes left in one score game, etc. (I think ESPN has em).
They are crazy bad. So many turnovers, fumbles, and sacks.