Fields-O-Meter

[Stinger226]

If Williams is Joe Burrows, i will be the first to stand in line to buy his jersey, . The QB that seems to fit our offense better is Maye. Williams seems more of a hero type of QB. Gets out of the pocket to make plays. 

[Mongo3451]

2 hours ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

I think this is going to be a preview of the Superbowl. 

I don't.  Lamar will get whacked in the playoffs.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Getsy is bad. I almost want them to just lose this to put any excuse out the door. Sad that I am thinking that. 

[adam]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

If Williams is Joe Burrows, i will be the first to stand in line to buy his jersey, . The QB that seems to fit our offense better is Maye. Williams seems more of a hero type of QB. Gets out of the pocket to make plays. 

As much as I like the arm talent, all the other stuff scares me. Painting fingernails, not talking to media after losses, can a young guy like that command a team of men as the leader? Time will tell. Poles has a tough decision coming up. 

[BearFan PHX]

2 minutes ago, adam said:

As much as I like the arm talent, all the other stuff scares me. Painting fingernails, not talking to media after losses, can a young guy like that command a team of men as the leader? Time will tell. Poles has a tough decision coming up. 

yup. And he is 6' 1" - If it wasnt for the injuries, Id be squawking a lot about Penix. Daniels has a lot going for him.

And you dont need a #1 pick for those guys, but did todays win put another QB on this list out of our reach with that second pick? And take away our chance to trade out of #1 for a big haul?

[Mongo3451]

21 minutes ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

Getsy is bad. I almost want them to just lose this to put any excuse out the door. Sad that I am thinking that. 

I don't understand the dumb shit he calls when we need a yard.

If Flus stays, maybe we can lure Jim Bob Cooter from the Colts since Steichen calls their plays.

[BearFan PHX]

1 minute ago, Mongo3451 said:

I don't understand the dumb shit he calls when we need a yard.

yeah, no matter what else is said about the QB or whatever, there have been a ton of short yardage calls this year that just absolutely boggle the mind. And those things are 100% on the coaching.

[adam]

Last 5 games: 96-160, 60.0%, 945 yds (189/g), 4 TD, 3 INT; 58-348 (69.6/g), 2TD

with rushing yards, he is averages 258 yds per game and 1.2 TDs per game. 2 of the INTs were hail marys. 

[killakrzydav]

Did he play well today? I only saw the box score

[adam]

4 minutes ago, killakrzydav said:

Did he play well today? I only saw the box score

Same as before, some good, some bad. Not all on him, but still feels inconsistent. Moore got hurt, Kmet got hurt, so options were limited. He made the most of the scrambles. Ended up relying on defense to make a turnover on downs stand in the ARZ territory to basically seal it. Bad INT took away an amazing scramble play. 

[adam]

Fields had a 71.5 Passer Rating and 65.5 QBR against ARZ.  ARZ was ranked 32d in Defensive DVOA. 

He now has a 85.6 QB Rating, 23rd among QBs with enough passing attempts to qualify.  For QBR, he slide up slightly to 44.9 which is 22nd, just behind Derek Carr and Russell Wilson, and just ahead of Sam Howell.  QBR 50.0 is average.

I think Fields has made Poles decision a lot easier than it should've been. Poles just needs to sift thru all the other noise (O-Line play, Receivers, play caller, injury) and figure out what is best for the team. 

As long as he is GM, he ain't getting the first pick again. If he messes this up, he is fired in 2 years.

[killakrzydav]

I don’t see how a first round pick is better than Fields immediately and could be potentially disastrous

[BearFan PHX]

33 minutes ago, killakrzydav said:

Did he play well today? I only saw the box score

he had some amazing plays outside the pocket, but a bunch of read plays were late. same as always: Amazing, lacking and head scratching.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

42 minutes ago, killakrzydav said:

I don’t see how a first round pick is better than Fields immediately and could be potentially disastrous

Yup.  And the unknowns of how that translates to the NFL is concerning. I personally don’t have any confidence that either Maye nor Williams are “it”.  

[AZ54]

6 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

It's my belief, that you will see the ceiling of what Justin could be, tomorrow night, when Lamar plays against the 49ers.  It's also why, I believe, that type of QB can succeed, but never win the big one.  If Lamar proves me wrong, it's a positive for Justin...

IMO Lamar has improved a ton in the pocket.  His growth this year actually surprised me.  Plus he’s also slowed down a lot as a runner.  Still good but not the crazy stuff of years past.  

[BearFan PHX]

34 minutes ago, AZ54 said:

IMO Lamar has improved a ton in the pocket.  His growth this year actually surprised me.  Plus he’s also slowed down a lot as a runner.  Still good but not the crazy stuff of years past.  

yeah, i havent watched a lot of film, but I think Jackson, Mahomes and Hurts are all able to make reads on time from the pocket in addition to their other abilities.

[adam]

Is Fields with a new OC better than a rookie with that new OC?

One crazy note, for how bad Lawrence has looked recently. He seems to have really regressed as the season has gone on, Fields may be the best QB of that year group. 

 

[Stinger226]

28 minutes ago, adam said:

Is Fields with a new OC better than a rookie with that new OC?

One crazy note, for how bad Lawrence has looked recently. He seems to have really regressed as the season has gone on, Fields may be the best QB of that year group. 

 

Lawrence was heralded as ( the guy), isn't there yet. Some players need more time to develop, need a better coach, need better roster around him.

[adam]

8 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

Lawrence was heralded as ( the guy), isn't there yet. Some players need more time to develop, need a better coach, need better roster around him.

It seems like Mac Jones started good, then got worse (more tape on him?). Lawrence had a really good stretch between two seasons but has really fallen off of late. Wilson has been bad almost the entire time, and Fields has been up and down but seems like he is trending the best out of all of them over the last couple of months.

[adam]

Here is the 2021 QB Group with their QBRs per season and ELO rank this year.

Lawrence is still the top, but if you see his most recent games, he has 5 TDs, 5 INTs, and 3 fumbles lost in the last 3 games while the Jaguars have lost 4 straight:

1. Lawrence 39.1 > 56.1 > 58.0 (10th ELO)
2. Mills 41.2 > 35.0 > 49.2 (N/A ELO)
3. Fields 31.4 > 56.3 > 44.8 (22nd ELO)
4. Jones 56.9 > 38.4 > 37.1 (45th ELO)
5. Wilson 33.4 > 38.5 > 29.9 (55th ELO)

[BearFan PHX]

There's an article in the Sun Times today about Fields, and it touches on a lot of things people have said about him here, good and bad, on the board. I'll excerpt and highlight the parts I think harmonize with the discussions we've been having, and the whole thing is linked below. I agree with all of it - the good stuff about Fields too.

"Justin Fields has improved. That’s indisputable.

Every highly drafted rookie quarterback is charged with the same task: Don’t stay there. His trajectory has been upward, and even in a performance like he had in the Bears’ win over the Cardinals on Sunday — completing 56% of his passes for 170 yards and a 71.5 passer rating while running for 97 yards — his overall progress is clear.

He already is better than the last quarterback the Bears drafted in the first round, Mitch Trubisky, as well as fellow 2021 first-round picks Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and Mac Jones.

But the crucial assessment the Bears must make is whether Fields’ improvement is exponential and rapid enough. Even with all the surrounding turmoil Fields has endured, starting with former coach Matt Nagy having no idea how to develop him, he has enough of a body of work for general manager Ryan Poles to evaluate.

There’s a lot at stake for Poles: his job. A general manager can’t inherit a quarterback one year removed from being drafted 11th overall, then get the No. 1 pick two years in a row as Poles is likely to do and fail to emerge from that sequence with a franchise quarterback.

He must have so much conviction in Fields that he’s willing to bypass the chance to pick any college quarterback he wants — again. Poles has to weigh what he believes Fields’ ceiling is against what he imagines for college stars like Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and a few others.

It’s reasonable to predict Fields could, in a best-case outcome, develop into the 12th-to-15th-best quarterback in the NFL someday. It’s also reasonable for Poles to say he needs more than that when the Bears are trying to beat Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and at least a half-dozen others.

That list grew by one this year with the addition of spectacular Texans rookie C.J. Stroud, whom Poles essentially passed on in favor of Fields by trading out of the opportunity to draft him. The Texans were almost as bad as the Bears last season — in fact, the Bears beat them — and now they’re tied for the seventh spot in the playoffs and Stroud is an MVP candidate. He’s ahead of Fields after only 13 starts.

Fields’ 84.5 passer rating (21^st in the NFL through Sunday) is a hair below last season and his 60.9 completion percentage (27th) is a hair better. His 191.5 yards passing per game (24^th) is much higher than last season, when he was last among NFL starters at 149.5. He has supplemented that with 585 yards rushing (second among quarterbacks), a part of his game he and the Bears have said they want to scale back and replace with more passing production.

The other top running quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Hurts, all average at least 220 yards passing per game.

The Bears traded the top pick to the Panthers, who drafted consensus No. 1 pick Bryce Young. He hasn’t been anything close to Stroud. To ace that test, Poles would’ve had to keep the pick and gotten it right by taking Stroud first overall. It’s a lot to expect, but that’s the job. And he’s almost certainly about to encounter the same situation again after this season.

The draft is wild. It’s murky and unpredictable. The teams that drafted Sam Bradford, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Couch — all No. 1 overall selections in the last 25 years — didn’t think they were getting it wrong at the time. And the teams that found quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy and Prescott in middle or late rounds surely didn’t know quite how right they’d gotten it until later.

So if Poles knew he would land someone as good as Stroud, who already has six 300-yard games compared to one for Fields, there’s no doubt they’d make that upgrade. But it’s always possible the Bears will end up with another Trubisky instead.

The Fields decision is complicated because he’s neither bust nor star. It’d be so much clearer if he definitively was one or the other. But he’s in between. He might go somewhere else and keep growing, whereas no one envisioned Trubisky doing that.

But by default, not having the answer is an answer in itself. Teams that don’t know if they have the right quarterback usually don’t, and as the Bears near the end of the Fields’ third season and pivotal intersection of the 2024 offseason, there’s no way they could be certain of him."

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2023/12/25/24014791/chicago-bears-qb-justin-fields-improved-but-development-exponential-rapid-enough-arizona-cardinals

[Alaskan Grizzly]

6 hours ago, adam said:

Is Fields with a new OC better than a rookie with that new OC?

One crazy note, for how bad Lawrence has looked recently. He seems to have really regressed as the season has gone on, Fields may be the best QB of that year group. 

 

If you ask me, option A.

And what about Mahomes?  What the heck is going on with him?  He’s had at least one INT in each of the last four games.  And had a 73.6 rating today against the lowly Raiders. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

5 hours ago, adam said:

Lawrence had a really good stretch between two seasons but

To be fair he’s also being injured for the last number of weeks. Surprising given he’s a more pocket passer.  (Yes that’s me being a little cynical).  

[BearFan PHX]

1 minute ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

If you ask me, option A.

And what about Mahomes?  What the heck is going on with him?  He’s had at least one INT in each of the last four games.  And had a 73.6 rating today against the lowly Raiders. 

If we're trying to win the most games next season, then Fields could be the answer to the question. CJ Stroud might argue, but in general, it's not a bad bet.

But my opinion, long term, a QB not named Fields is more likely to win a Super Bowl for the Bears. I dont see Fields' style ever working against good defenses. There's no evidence that he's improving as a pocket passer making reads in rhythm outside of the scripted opening plays.

If it helps, if the question was reversed and it was would a rookie do better with Getsy or a new OC, I'd go with the new OC, so it's not like Justin is the only problem in my eyes.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

45 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

That list grew by one this year with the addition of spectacular Texans rookie C.J. Stroud, whom Poles essentially passed on in favor of Fields by trading out of the opportunity to draft him. The Texans were almost as bad as the Bears last season — in fact, the Bears beat them — and now they’re tied for the seventh spot in the playoffs and Stroud is an MVP candidate. He’s ahead of Fields after only 13 starts.

To borrow a quote from the late Dennis Greene, to crown CJ Stroud’s ass right now might be a little immature. His team is only one (or two) game(s) ahead of Chicago and he hasn’t played in the last two (??) games. Before that he threw for a total of 91 yards to the NYJ.  
 

To further exacerbate the conversation of bust drafts, the one thing I’d prefer to avoid is become the next iteration of the Browns.  Since 1999 they’ve drafted 5 QBs (two as 1st overalls) and have nothing to show for it. The guy they’re stumbling into the playoffs with is a nearly 40 year old former 1st round pick who until a few weeks ago was sitting on a couch somewhere.