In Fields’ first start against the Browns, Nagy’s game plan was so disastrous that the Bears had their worst offensive output in more than 40 years and Nagy gave up play-calling shortly after.© 2022 NFL Enterprises LLC. In his debut, he played five snaps sprinkled in against the Rams as part of a plan that was as confusing as it was ineffective.
It’s just all about the journey.”įields spent the months before his rookie season stuck on second string behind journeyman Andy Dalton, and Nagy never seemed to know what to do with him.
When Ryan Poles took over as general manager, he said the adverse circumstances clouded his evaluation of Fields.Īsked what good came out of his 2021 experience, Fields told the Sun-Times, “You may not know now why that happened last year, so I can’t fully answer that question for you, but you might find that out in the next two or three years. There was so much wrong with his rookie season under former coach Matt Nagy that it’s hard to identify what the Bears actually accomplished with him.
When Giants owner John Mara said of quarterback Daniel Jones in January, “We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up,” it was easy to imagine the same line coming from Bears chairman George McCaskey about Fields. There are a variety of mitigating factors that must be considered in Fields’ case. Through his first 15 games, he was at 67.7.Īnd although passer rating is not the all-encompassing, defining statistic it sounds like, it does provide a reasonable sketch of a quarterback’s performance - minus his rushing prowess, which is a significant factor for Fields, who has 515 yards and three touchdowns as a runner.Īmong the 16 quarterbacks who were first- or second-team on any of the foremost All-Pro lists over the last decade, the average passer rating for their first 15 games was 88.0.įields, meanwhile, beats only the Jets’ Zach Wilson in passer rating (69.7) and completion percentage (55.6%), and he has the highest interception percentage at 4.4%. The Bears’ 1999 first-round pick, Cade McNown, is on that list. It includes many more dreadful draft picks (David Carr, Rick Mirer, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington) than it does resurgent mainstays (Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith). Over the last three decades, the list of quarterbacks who had a sub-70.0 rating through 15 games is scary - only sparsely decorated with players turning that around to achieve long-term success. Through 15 career games, he has completed 57.8% of his passes and thrown for nine touchdowns against 14 interceptions for a 69.9 passer rating. They’re also concerning because this isn’t a sharp departure from his overall performance last season. Almost any quarterback can pull off some big plays - or even big games - here and there.įields’ struggles are alarming because they’ve come at a time when everyone expected he’d be coming into his own. At some point, however, he has to deliver on that promise by playing consistently. Remember his wild touchdown run against the 49ers last season? The frenzied rally in Pittsburgh on “Monday Night Football”? The way he kept the Bears within reach deep into the fourth quarter against the Packers in his fourth career start?Īll three of those games ended in defeat, by the way, but the focus was on Fields showing promise. And when the fans and organization want so badly for it to be true, it doesn’t take much to keep those dreams going.
There’s still a lot of hope for Fields because during his turbulent two seasons, there have been moments that spark it. And it’s hard to decide which is more jarring, his 51.1% completion rate or his 50.0 passer rating through three games. Fields has the least yardage and highest interception percentage by a wide margin heading into the Bears’ game against the Giants on Sunday. No NFL quarterback has thrown fewer passes this season, or accomplished so little with them.
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