adam

Welp, it looks like fools gold. Unless Fields magically turns this around in TB next weekend, he is not it. No QB has went this deep into his career this bad, and turned it around. Most QBs had already been replaced by someone else. Fields is setting records in futility every week now. In his first game of his 3rd season, Josh Allen threw for 312 yards, 2 TDs, and had 57 yards rushing and another TD. In his 2nd game, he threw for 415 and 4 TDs. 7 TDs in 2 games and over 700 passing yards. Allen then followed up those 2 games with 311 yards passing, 4 TDs, 1 INT, and another rushing TD. 1000+ yards passing, 10 passing TDs, 1 INT, and 2 rushing TDs in 3 games. In his first game of his 3rd season, Jalen Hurts threw for 243 yards, and had 90 yards rushing and a TD. In his 2nd game, he threw for 333 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT, ran for 57 and had 2 rushing TDs. 4 TDs and almost 600 yards passing in two games. He then threw for 340 with 3 TDs and 0 INTs in game 3. 900+ yards passing, 4 passing TDs, 1 INT, and 3 rushing TDs in 3 games. Pretty crazy to think that this is where we are at. These are the QBs that Fields comps to thru 26 starts: 1. Blaine Gabbert - 27 starts 2. JaMarcus Russell - 25 starts 3. Vince Young - 33 games The Gabbert one is scary. As a passer, Fields is Gabbert to this point in his career. Gabbert 4357 yds, 22 TD, 24 INT. 5-22 Record in 27 starts. 155.6 yds/g. Fields 4328 yds, 25 TD, 22 INT. 5-21 Record in 26 starts. 154.6 yds/g.

So preseason wasn't a fluke. All they threw were screen passes. Greg Braggs said that he didn't see many long throws in training camp, and was concerned. Well that played out yesterday to a T.

Yeah, there are a few ways to process info. Some people are super smart, ace written tests, but can't think on their feet. Fields is an athlete, probably top 10 in the league. At this point, they need to use him that way. Jackson does a bunch of RPOs and forces the defense to react. The Bears are trying to use him like a pocket QB. That's like making someone throw with the other hand. Majority of the blame is on the coaches and the scheme. Moore got 2 targets, both on one drive. Foreman had 3 targets. On defense, there is one player they needed to give extra attention to, Aaron Jones. How we the Bears allow him to catch two passes for 86 YARDS and a TD. He should've had two. He ended the game with 3 TDs and 127 yards. Insane. So much for that great LB corps. Edwards looked pedestrian. Edmunds looked ok, but Love had to many passes in the middle of the field. On 3rd and 1 you have Kmet take a direct snap, which forced 9 defenders into the box. How about you have him take the snap and pitch it out wide or something like that. I thought Nagy's plays were predictable, but I was calling the play before they ran it. If I could see it, then GB knew what they were doing.

TB just beat MIN in MIN. Do you really think the Bears can travel to TB and beat them? Evans and Godwin are light years better than Doubs and Reed. If the same team shows up that did today, we are 0-4 after 4 easily.

That's the thing, we are at 11 in a row right now. Do you let it get past 17? That is an entire seasons worth of games. I think they would have to fire someone by 15.

Yeah my belief meter went down to 60/100 after that one. Look at Daniel Jones on SNF. Losing 26-0 at half, has 2 INT, 4 sacks, and 43 yards passing. The Giant supposedly had a great offseason and were destined for the playoffs. They look worse than the Bears, which is hard to do.

That would be possible, but if we had the first two, you have to take a QB with one of them.

What if they start 0-9? Next week is in TB, who beat MIN. Then KC, that's 0-3. Then @WAS and vs MIN. Could be 0-5. The 10th game is vs Carolina. That and ARZ are the only two games on the schedule that look winnable now with this team.

The only saving grace is a bunch of QBs struggled today. Burrow passed for 82 yards. Geno Smith passed for 112. Watson threw for 154. Tannehill completed 47% of his passes and had 3 INTs. Bryce Young, the rookie savior threw for 146, 3.8 Y/A, and 2 INTs. 11x QBs threw for less than 200 yards, including Wilson, Hurts, and Lamar. I would only give Fields a few more games. He looked exactly the same as last year, maybe worse. He does not look comfortable in this offense. I would make him into a gadget QB like Hill. Let Bagent play QB, then bring Fields in as a gadget player. Use his athleticism, he is a hell of an athlete, just not a starting NFL QB.

Looks like Bears will have two top-5 picks. A QB and OL or Edge.

Check down Charlie. We don't need Fields to do that, Bagent is more than capable of throwing checkdowns on EVERY play.

What sucks is the defense let up 3 HUGE plays that all resulted in TDs, then the pick-6 from Fields. That is 28 of the 38 pts. 7 was on the opening drive of 40 yards. 2 huge plays to Dillon and the blown coverage on Musgrave. That's all it takes to have a blowout. Love is still fools gold, but he made the plays he had to make. However, he had hours back there to throw and was rarely pressured. The game is so much easier in that environment.

Fields has 144 passing yards with 12 minutes left in the game. Same scheme, same QB, same results. DJ Moore with 2 targets. Come on Getsy.

Wow, this is how you show up to an opening day game at home against an arch rival? This team is toast. Both offensive and defensive schemes are terrible. Sending 4 and dropping 7 with no pressure ain't gonna work in this league. Every coach and coordinator need to be on the hot seat. Fields does not look good. Looks exactly the same as last year. Late on throws make for easy interceptions.

Defense with back to back 3 and outs. Offense needs a sustained TD drive here.

Ok defense, that was better, a quick 3 and out.

Bears sloppy, Packers always are rushing 5 almost every time. Bears need to take advantage of that.

Gave them a short field, easy TD. Terrible start, getting destroyed in the trenches.

Getsy with some questionable play calls. Felt like Nagy there. Just play football, you are fooling no one. Defense still having trouble stopping the run. Not the best start.

LETS GO!

btw 19 hours to kickoff!

I am not 100% sold on Fields, but the slider has moved closer to 100 from 50, say between 75 and 80. Basically what he did last year, especially in that 10 game stretch, was pretty herculean. An average QB would've looked a lot worse. It was not like he was going to throw for 250 yards a game to ESB, Pettis, and ISM with the patchwork offensive line. The lack of volume killed him. The Bears 2022 Receiving Group is most comparable to the 2018 Bills and 2018 Jaguars in terms of grades. The 2018 Bills had Zay Jones, McCoy, Foster, and Benjamin as their top 4 receivers. A rookie Josh Allen threw for 2074 yds and ran for 631. Terrible receivers and low volume. The 2018 Jaguars had Westbrook, Yeldon, Moncrief, and Cole as the top 4 receivers. Bortles threw for 2718 yds and ran for 365. Look at those receiving groups, that is what Fields had last year.

I am changing my game score. My initial projection was Bears 24-17. Without Watson, the Packers are not going to get the chunk plays they need to score, and Love will have to throw to less capable receivers leading to an extra turnover. So I am giving the Bears an extra score and taking one away from the Packers. Final score: Bears 30-13 Moore goes over 100 yards receiving. Fields throws for 250+ and runs for 50+. The triple headed monster of Herbert-Foreman-Johnson rush for a combined 150+ yards. The Bears defense gets 2 sacks and 2 turnovers.

BTW, besides terrible coaching by Nagy, Trubisky also had a subpar receiving unit that was bottom 10 every year except for 2018 when they were 17th. Check out CHI vs KC receivers from 2017 - 2022, then consider how Mahomes looked on Thursday night. Trubisky was the fall guy and he had his flaws, but he could've been a better, more mobile Mac Jones if he had receivers. 2017 - 23rd / 10th KC 2018 - 17th / 3rd KC 2019 - 28th / 7th KC 2020 - 20th / 4th KC 2021 - 26th / 11th KC 2022 - 32nd / 2nd KC Fields had the WORST receivers in 2022 (and one of the 5 worst units in the last 5 years), yet somehow pulled some of those games out of his ass. Now with at least a league average receiving corps, if nothing else improved, that is several wins added. The defense has 6 new starters and 5 new key rotational players. That is 11 out of 16 main cogs on the defense with several others back from injury. They don't have to be great, just league average, and the Bears take a massive leap in wins in 2023.

On a side note, I got involved in a Twitter thread and uncovered some interesting info. So after Thursday Night there was all this discussion about how Mahomes looked without Kelce. Then PFF grades came out and people used that to support their argument that Mahomes had no help. Yet Fields has never gotten that benefit because the team hasn't won. However, the situation with Fields is much worse than I even expected. The Bears were dead last in Receiver grades in 2022, and for his career, Fields receivers grade out at 62.4, well under the league average. He has only started 5 games out of 25 where his receivers were league average or above. So in only 20% of his starts were his receivers at least average, and in 2022, he only had 2 starts (NE and DET) where receivers were average. Now you add DJ Moore, a healthy Mooney, a Claypool that knows the playbook, Tonyan, and Scott, and that grade should go way up. That alone is going to make Fields better, there is a clear correlation between those values. People say that the QB has to make the players around him better, but as shown by Toney, the players have to help out the QB by just being average. If the Bears get average receiver play, they are a 10 win team, that's what the numbers say. Fields will improve exponentially without actually improving. If he actually improved himself at the same time, the league is in for a big surprise.