Bear Digest

Bears Like Having Passer Who Can Run

The ability to run for Justin Fields is a great option considering his speed, but the Bears ideally want him finding the proper balance between the pass and run.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears Like Having Passer Who Can Run
Bears Like Having Passer Who Can Run /

The Bears didn't draft Justin Fields to run the ball.

They're glad he can, though. Fields considers himself a winner more than a runner, and the Bears are as happy his real interest in the game is winning and passing.

"I think the kind of player the Bears are getting is a versatile player, a player that can make plays both with my arm and also with my legs and of course a smart player, a player that's going to make smart decisions and a player that wants to win, that's willing to do whatever to win," Fields said. "That of course is my No. 1 job, however that may be, whatever my position may be on the team."

The challenge for the Bears is getting Fields up to a high enough level in the offense so whatever he does it's at full speed and not with defenders already in his face because he waited too long with indecision.

"We want him to learn this offense so that he can play at that 4.4 speed that he has when he's out there," Nagy said.

Nagy pointed out Andy Dalton and Nick Foles try to make up for their lack of running ability by making fast, accurate decisions. He wants Fields to be able to make the fast, accurate decisions but also be able to use his speed.

"When you have that speed that he has, it's definitely a rare element," Nagy said.

When the Bears had Mitchell Trubisky, a concerted effort was made to get Trubisky to think of scrambling as a last resort. At the end of preseason in 2019 Trubisky insisted he wanted to be a passer who bought time with his feet to throw, but wasn't necessarily a runner. He'd been effective as a runner in 2018 and then put this ability on a shelf in the closet to focus on buying time with his feet so he could throw.

The end result was a quarterback who missed out on running opportunities, wasn't really good at patiently seeing downfield to detect receivers breaking open as he bought time with his feet, and when he found one he didn't hit them often enough.

Nagy seems to think he has in Fields a quarterback who already knows how the legs have to be used as a last resort and to make possible the pass.

"I think when you watch him play on tape for the 40-time that he ran (4.44), it's a controlled speed that he has," Nagy said. "So he plays quarterback first and then uses his legs second.

"So what happens when you naturally have that, defenses can collapse the pocket and they still can't get you and you extend plays with your legs, that's hard for defensive coordinators. When you become a runner when they take (the pass) away, and not just being able to run for 15 or 20 yards but you're able to take it the distance and go for 70 or 80 which he can do, that's a whole other element."

The running or more athletic quarterback is a definite NFL trend but it's not one which definitely means success.

Daniel Jones, Cam Newton, Kyler Murray, Deshaun Watson and Jalen Hurts all ranked in the top 10 last year in rushing attempts among quarterbacks and none had winning records as starters.

Nor is it a detriment. Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes rated in the top 10 in rushing attempts, as well. And all were playoff quarterbacks last season. 

What matters is blending a limited number of running attempts in with the real reason a team drafted them — the ability to throw accurately.

Fields probably ran it a few too many times in college with 260 attempts over three seasons, but this is true for most college passers. 

Much of the time it's by design at that level of ball, against slower defenders. He could inflict far greater damage with his legs there than at the NFL level. Faster players in better defenses tend to make quarterbacks rethink the run.

Even in Fields' case, it's better to keep from running it too much and he could point to his last game at Ohio State as an example why he needs to get the ball out of his hand. Clemson beat him up in the semifinals and hurt his chances of playing effectively against Alabama in the title game loss. 

"I think me being injured that game definitely might have impacted my performance in that game and what I could have done in the national championship game," Fields said.  

In describing the toughness Fields has, GM Ryan Pace also revealed what happens to the quarterback who is running around with the ball too much.

"You know, I was at the Michigan game a couple years ago when he came back in from a knee, and we know about the ribs and the hip, and this guy's toughness on a scale of 1-10 is an 11," Pace said. "And you just love that about him. Oh, and then by the way, he runs a 4.44. You throw all that in together and it just feels good."

It's better if he doesn't need to show his toughness. If he's passing the ball more and running it a bit less he doesn't have to worry about the ribs, the hip and the knee.

In the NFL, running quarterbacks eventually seem to meet up with undesirable fates: Newton, Robert Griffin III, Teddy Bridgewater, Daunte Culpepper, the list just keeps going. Andrew Luck averaged 55 rushing attempts a year and the beating from those and the sacks added up to a six-year career.

Mahomes ran the ball 43 times during Kansas City's Super Bowl-winning season. Last year and in 2018 he ran it 62 and 60 times and KC didn't win Super Bowls. 

Less is more when it comes to quarterbacks running.

Tom Brady averaged 38 rushing attempts a year over his first 10 seasons. He averaged 28.5 attempts the last nine years. Those aren't high totals compared to the 159 rushes by Jackson, 133 by Murray and 137 by Newton last year.

Brady is a good example of what a quarterback can do when he uses his legs judiciously but knows his offense well enough to use his decision-making speed to make up for his lack of running speed. 

Aaron Rodgers is an example of a quarterback who knows the offense, will run it and has the speed to do it, and he uses it judiciously.

The Bears want to see both of those abilities from Fields, and above all else they want him using his arm to get the ball to others to run.

It's what quarterbacks are really supposed to do.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.

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