The Chicago Bears seemingly want quarterback Justin Fields to focus a little less on scrambling for long runs as soon as next season.
“It’s got to be a part of who you are, [but] in the NFL, it’s hard for it to be who you are — you just don’t last,” Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said on Wednesday about Fields’ rushing habits, according to Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s got to be a part of us and he’s really, really good at it. He’s really good at a lot of things. So we’ve got to make sure we just tap into each one of those things, but [running], for sure, has to be a part of who we are going forward.”
Fields both enjoyed a breakout campaign in his first season playing under Getsy and was once again a mixed bag throughout the 2022 season. The 23-year-old led all quarterbacks and was seventh in the entire league with 1,143 rushing yards. While Fields contributed eight rushing touchdowns, he was also last among qualified players with 149.5 passing yards per game. He ranked 25th with an 85.2 passer rating and 17th with a 54.1 total QBR, and he matched 17 touchdown passes with 11 interceptions in 15 games.
Perhaps most worrisome as it pertains to Fields’ future, he ended his second pro season sidelined with a strained hip.
Getsy indicated he’d like Fields to follow in the footsteps of signal-callers like Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It’s not just the ability to run, it’s the ability to create time where you can have those receivers have an opportunity to go do what they do,” Getsy said of such proven quarterbacks extending plays with their legs.
Some have linked the Bears with to-be rookie quarterbacks such as Bryce Young of Alabama, in part due to supposed concerns about Fields’ ability to “throw the ball well enough to win consistently.” Lieser suggested on Wednesday that Getsy and the Chicago staff are still determining if Fields was “indecisive and struggling to read coverages” throughout this past season.
Learning such information sooner than later could result in Chicago pulling the trigger on a franchise-altering move when this year’s NFL Draft opens on April 27.
