The Bears have seen all they need from quarterback Justin Fields to have made a decision on his NFL future with the team.
There is no doubt about the quarterback’s brilliant athleticism. If he is not the best running quarterback in the league – Lamar Jackson of the Ravens is his greatest competition – he is no worse than second or third. But the Bears don’t play in the Big Ten and a running quarterback is not what they need. They need a quarterback who can make sharp decisions and throw the ball accurately.
Fields is concluding his third season with the Bears and he has played in 38 games and started 36 times. He is capable of making some highlight-film-type plays with his arm as well as his legs, but the consistency is not there.
Overall, Justin Fields has completed 547 of 910 passes throughout his career for 6,258 yards with 39 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. He has completed 196 of 322 passes in 11 games this year – he missed 4 games with a thumb injury – for 2,146 yards with a 15-9 TD-interception ratio.
A look at the Bears' offense this season shows they have the 28th-ranked passing offense in the league. His performance has been better in 2023 than it was in 2021 and 2022, but there’s enough evidence for general manager Ryan Poles to come to the conclusion that Fields is not going to perform well enough in a Bears uniform to ever make them a consistent playoff team and a championship contender.
Decision-making and accuracy are the key factors in the NFL
Publicly, the Bears are still in the evaluation process, but it’s clear that Justin Fields is struggling to make the correct decision with the ball in his hands and then to put the ball where it needs to go for his receivers to make big plays.
“It does not take 3 full seasons for a team to make a decision on a quarterback in today’s NFL,” said one AFC executive. “You know by the end of a quarterback’s second year when he is the starter. Many quarterbacks will struggle in Year 1, but there has to be serious improvement in Year 2. By the third year, you know if he is the guy or not, and Fields is not a dependable quarterback at this point. The Bears should know that.”
If Justin Fields is not Chicago’s quarterback of the future, the Bears should not be playing him in the final 2 games of the regular season. He has trade value that is not going to be enhanced by having him line up under center against the Atlanta Falcons and the Green Bay Packers in Weeks 17 and 18.
Justin Fields has value to other teams
His value around the league is his remarkable athleticism combined with the idea that he will improve in a different environment with better coaches than Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Whether that will actually result is up for debate, but most NFL coaches believe they have the know-how to turn talented players around.
If they didn’t believe in their own ability, why else would they go into coaching? The Bears should know that Justin Fields is not their long-term quarterback. It’s time to move on and look to the draft for a truly accurate passer who can turn them into a legitimate contender.
Ravens preparation allowed them to deliver peak NFL defensive performance
When it comes to coaching, it’s hard to imagine any team that does a better job of preparing players to succeed more than John Harbaugh and his staff on the Ravens.
The Ravens appear to have played the game of the year when they went to San Francisco Monday night and destroyed the 49ers on their home field.
The 49ers were playing the best football of any team in the league and had won 6 games in a row, none by fewer than 12 points. They had two of the leading MVP candidates in Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey and they had full motivation to keep it going since they were in the No. 1 spot in the NFC playoff structure.
Since the Niners had lost 3 games earlier in the season when injuries were a significant factor, there was no reason for them to be at anything less than their best effort. With Purdy, McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk all performing at a superior level, the intimidation level was high.
Except somebody forgot to tell the Ravens, who were fully prepared and ready to punish a great team.
Confidence in the Ravens locker room
Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald embraced the challenge. They had completely prepared their players by pumping them up throughout the week and making sure they knew that they didn’t have to take a back seat to the 49ers.
With stars like Roquan Smith, Patrick Queen and Kyle Hamilton, the message was quickly accepted in the locker room. They studied and knew all of Purdy’s tendencies and delivered on the coaching staff's expectations. The Ravens intercepted Purdy four times and Hamilton had two of them.
It was the kind of beating that should stay with the Ravens with the playoffs right around the corner. The final score was 33-19, but it was as thorough a beating as Harbaugh and Macdonald could have hoped for. The Ravens were faster, tougher, more decisive and better in every way.
Peaking at the right time
If they can do this to the 49ers when they have been playing at their best, who is going to stop them? There’s a new challenge in the NFL every week and the Ravens will have to respond to a new test in Week 17 against the high-powered Dolphins.
The Dolphins have plenty of weapons to push the Ravens hard, but the talent and experience level on defense will be difficult for Miami – and any opponent in the playoffs – to overcome.
The numbers tell the story for this team. The Ravens are allowing a league-best 16.3 points per game while they are scoring 27.8 points per game, a figure that ranks 4th in the league. That’s the kind of balance that every team is looking for, and Baltimore appears to be peaking at the right time.
This and that
It’s time to say goodbye to the onside kick because the rule changes over the years have made the play useless. It has succeeded only once this season and a success ratio of 3 percent simply is not good enough. In years past, an onside kick succeeded more than 15 percent of the time, and that meant teams had a legitimate chance to succeed. An alternative play of giving the team kicking off one chance to convert on 4th-and-15 has been contemplated in the past but expect it to get quite a bit of backing at league meetings in the offseason. …
Change for Eagles D
The Eagles are hoping that Matt Patricia can turn around their defense, which has steadily gotten worse as the season has progressed. Head coach Nick Sirianni made Patricia the team’s defensive leader prior to the Week 15 game against the Seahawks. Sean Desai had been the team’s defensive coordinator, but the Eagles had no answers in losses to the Niners and Cowboys. The Philadelphia pass defense ranks 27th and the scoring defense has fallen to 24th, as the Birds allow 24.4 points per game.
The last 2 games of the season are against the Cardinals and Giants, and those opponents are not likely to tell much of a story. The test will come for Patricia at the start of the playoffs, but the change in responsibility may be too little and too late to match last year’s success. …
Running backs struggling in 2023
Much has been made of the precipitous downturn in running backs’ salaries over the years, but with 2 games to go, there are just 4 running backs with 1,000 yards or more. McCaffrey is the best of the group with 1,395 yards, a 5.4 yards per carry mark and 14 rushing touchdowns. Kyren Williams of the Rams, James Cook of the Bills and Raheem Mostert of the Dolphins are the only other running backs that have eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark with 2 games left in the regular season.
Perhaps another running back besides McCaffrey will assert himself in the postseason, but it appears those doling out NFL salaries may have been right about limiting how much running backs are earning.
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