Bear Digest

Angst Over Justin Fields, Jayden Daniels and Tom Brady Is So Bears

Analysis: No one has more regrets at quarterback than the Bears and their fans but what's important is who plays there now rather than who might have once done it.

Gene Chamberlain

Tom Brady attempts to get off against the Bears in the 2021 season. Worrying about how Brady once could have been a Bear is like worrying about how Terry Bradshaw could have been a Bear.
Tom Brady attempts to get off against the Bears in the 2021 season. Worrying about how Brady once could have been a Bear is like worrying about how Terry Bradshaw could have been a Bear. / Kim Klement-Imagn Images
In this story:

There is no more of a raw nerve with Bears fans than the quarterback position.

It's why a guy who is closing in on 50 years old and talks about football now for a living, the GOAT Tom Brady, can talk about something that happened 4 years ago when someone else was running the Bears, and still generate angst bordering on hysteria.

So Brady was seriously considering the Bears.

There were rumors at the time they were part of this hunt but quickly out of it. So Brady says now they really were being seriously considered.

So what. I'll go get in my hot tub time machine and go back and fix it. Who cares?

For one, it would have meant Brady in a body bag trying to pass behind that offensive line. He would have been throwing then to Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney and no one else anyone cares to remember—the fighters: Anthony Miller and Javon Wims.

That right there, and knowing he threw to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin in Tampa, should have been enough to end this discussion.

The Bears didn't have the kind of salary cap money then to bring aboard a $27 million QB unless they cut most of their defense, maybe even Khalil Mack.

Regardless of all this, none of it matters at this point. It's just Brady digging up something to generate a controversy because everyone knows quarterback is a Bears hot button and apparently he's not getting the job done in the booth on a regular basis the way former Bears tight end Greg Olsen did. So he needs something to generate some clicks.

The response of Bears fans was so predictable.

After what everyone went through in the offseason, and again now with this position, it's probably not surprising Brady's inconsequential, ancient history could stir up the natives.

They could have had Brady? Yeah, they could have had Terry Bradshaw in the 1970 draft if not for Ed McCaskey losing the coin toss. So what.

Justin Fields and Caleb Williams

The real hot button continues to be the Caleb Williams-Jayden Daniels one, but there are those who love stoking up the fire on Williams and Justin Fields.

SCOUTING THE PANTHERS: RED RIFLE'S RETURN ISN'T ONLY BEARS WORRY

BEARS AND PANTHERS: TV, RADIO, BETTING LINES AND TRENDS

BEARS OFFENSE NEEDS TO FIND A AWAY OUT OF THE PHONE BOOTH

THE SURPRISE PASS BLOCKER WHO LED THE WAY FOR BEARS AGAINST RAMS

Talking about Williams-Fields makes almost as little sense as getting in an uproar over Brady's revelation. It's over. Fields is gone. Williams is the quarterback.

You'd need that same hot tub time machine to go back and do something about it. Best to forget about it.

Of course Fields is playing better than he did most of the time in Chicago. He's a fourth-year player now and is playing behind a better offensive line, in a more effective offense than he was under Luke Getsy and for one of the league's best head coaches. He also has George Pickens chasing his throws instead of Equanimeous St. Brown, N'Keal Harry, Chase Claypool, Ryan Griffin, Byron Pringle and Trevon Wesco.

Put Williams in Pittsburgh and you'd get something better than what he's shown with the Bears, too, and the success would grow with his experience.

The only real significant aspect of this comparison beyond seeing humorous bickering on social media between Fields/Bears fans and Williams/Bears fans is Williams has made four starts and Fields 42 starts with 44 games played. It's simply not a comparison.

The only real comparison is their first 141 pass attempts. This is how many Williams has been able to make now. When Fields and Williams had thrown the same number of passes, 141, there is no big advantage for Fields like now. In fact, Williams' statistics look a bit better.

Williams is 87 of 141 for 787 yards with three TDs and four interceptions. His completion percentage is 61.7%, his passer rating 72.0 and he averages 5.6 yards per attempt.

Fields, after 141 attempts, had 83 completions for 896 yards with three TDs and six interceptions. His completion percentage was lower than Williams at 58.9%, his passer rating was lower at 66.98 and yards per attempt higher at 6.35.

The 6.35 isn't good. Obviously neither is 5.6. Those are numbers many rookies tend to put up.

Fields has been putting up much better numbers for the Steelers after he had shown improvement in Chicago last year.

However, his numbers are not championship material because he fumbles. He has done it four times in four games, and he had two costly ones again Sunday. He has more fumbles than Williams and he has had 44 games to learn not how not to do it. He has 42 fumbles for his career, and a .954 per game fumble percentage, just below the all-time NFL fumbling percentage leader Daunte Culpepper, who fumbled in 97% of the games he played.

If Williams is still playing and starting by the 44th game, you'll have to check out the numbers and see if he's playing at a level like Fields or better, but the progress he has made since Week 1 indicates something better is possible.

Still, such speculation is no more constructive than the hand wringing about how Brady could have been on the Bears.

The Real Comparison

As for Jayden Daniels and Williams, this one is a legitimate comparison and criticism.

The real criticism here is the Bears hired Shane Waldron rather than Kliff Kingsbury, who not only has helped Daniels greatly with his attack but had worked with Williams last year at USC.

Kingsbury had immediate success with Kyler Murray, as well.

Daniels' quick and apparent success is an indication once again the Bears missed an opportunity, but it doesn't mean they also have missed one with Williams.

Williams has played four games, just like Daniels. It's possible Daniels could fizzle a bit, like Murray did, or that Williams could get hotter.

This is one comparison Bears fans need to keep talking about instead of whining about yesterday's fumbler or the guy who fumbles through broadcasts on TV.

It's now, not then.

There's still time for angry fans to take to social media or whatever their preference, maybe pitch forks and torches before they match on the gates of Halas Hall.

They might want to give it some time, first.

Four games does not a career make. After four games, Peyton Manning had a passer rating of 52.1.

After four games, the would-be Bears quarterback, Brady, had completed a lower percentage of his passes than Williams until he reached 135 passes thrown.

Much is yet to be said and done before anyone worries about this, but Bears fans need to keep close watch on Waldron and how the staff develops Williams and how Ryan Poles supports him, lest they see it all take the same route Fields did under the past Bears losing regime.

Or they could simply panic and scrap it all in the future to go pursue someone in free agency like Aaron Rodgers, a 40-something who will soon be approaching the age Brady was when the Bears supposedly courted him.

Rodgers could stop off in Chicago for a season or two before he goes into the broadcast booth and talks about where he could have once signed.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.