MOBILE, Ala. — Justin Fields or Bryce Young (or C.J. Stroud or Will Levis)? That’s the biggest unknown involving not just the Chicago Bears but the entire NFL this draft cycle.
While the Bears have nearly three months to figure it out, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said on the Rich Eisen Show Wednesday that his sense is the Bears will stick with Fields and trade the No. 1 pick — setting up a potential blockbuster deal that should fetch them one of the biggest hauls in NFL history.
Luke Getsy, the Bears’ offensive coordinator and American Team coach at this week’s Senior Bowl, didn’t come out and say that Fields is the Bears’ guy in 2023 (and presumably beyond) when he met with reporters Wednesday. But he certainly made a compelling argument that Fields still has another leap (or two) in him after a much improved Year 2.
Luke Getsy on Justin Fields
“I have great confidence in Justin,” Getsy told reporters. “We saw the growth that he had a year ago to where he’s at now. He still has a long way to go as far as where we want him to be and he knows that. Nobody works harder than Justin. The kind of guy he is and the kind of leader he is, I am really excited to see what he is doing this coming season.”
When asked where the Bears saw the most growth in Fields — who had 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns rushing to go with his 2,242 and 17 passing — Getsy replied:
“Probably the leadership part of it. He came out of his shell and really took command of the team. His confidence grew and all that stuff that’s really important in taking a team where you want to go. Guy put the team on his back for a few weeks there and showed that he’s able to do it. So I think that leadership part of it was really cool for him.”
It’s quite rare for a team that’s drafting No. 1 not to need a quarterback. But the Bears lost 14 games because the roster around Fields was terrible. That shouldn’t be the case in 2023. In addition to owning the No. 1 pick, the Bears have more than $110 million in salary cap space.
That gives them by far the most ammo to improve of any team in the NFL.
The Bears, as Breer said on the air, haven’t gotten a fair evaluation of Fields yet because of how little support he’s gotten.
But they do finally have an idea how to best use him. Getsy in the second half of the season did a better job tailoring the offense to maxmize Fields’ strengths.
“I definitely don’t think I’ve got it figured out, that’s for sure,” Getsy said. “But I think we as a group did a really nice job to put ourselves on a path towards the right direction. We have to grow, we have to be dynamic, we have to evolve even more for us to go where we want to go. We can’t kind of sit still where we are at right now. We are going to use this offseason to get ourselves in a good place so that we can be dynamic when we get to this coming season.”
Fields has proven he’s as good as any quarterback in football running the ball. But for the Bears to be a complete offense, he needs to be able to consistently throw the football. Fields ranked 24th in EPA+CPOE in 2022 (.045), and that needs to improve.
Injuries aren’t a matter of it, but when in football, Fields can do a better job of minimizing his risk.
Getsy said Fields carrying the ball “has got to be a part of who you are. In the NFL, it’s hard for it to be who you are. You just don’t last. 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 one of those things, but that for sure has to be a part of who we are going forward.”