Is Justin Fields on Wrong Fast Track?

Analysis: Justin Fields is going to make a huge number of rushing attempts but what the Bears need to see is growth instead as a passer, whether inside or outside the pocket.

With Justin Fields doing everything he can to convince everyone he is the Bears quarterback for now and the future, the team would like to know he's able to even do it in the future.

During the past week offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was asked if the type of offense they are running is sustainable.

"Like I said last week, it's not a dramatic change," Getsy said. "I think the difference that you see—the 61-yard run, that's a third-and-4 that, we called a pass play and it became what it is.

"We didn’t call a different play there than we did a couple weeks ago. I think what you're seeing is somebody that's more comfortable in calling a play, more comfortable in understanding what the play means. So you're able to do more things. Not just him—that’s everybody in the group."

The question allowed Getsy to turn it toward the whole offense.

The real question is not whether the type of success they are having as an offense using Fields' legs is sustainable. The Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles have done this with running quarterbacks.

Other teams in the NFL's past have done this type of thing, as well.

No one has won a Super Bowl this way yet. That, after all, is the real goal.

Sustained Long-Term Running Not Possible

The real question is whether Fields can sustain being a quarterback who makes defenses pay as a runner over an entire career and the answer is not so emphatically positive.

Sure, he can do it for a while. It's a question of being able to maintain his health but also of defenses adjusting to try and bottle him up.

Better defenses in big games adjust to running quarterbacks. It's part of the reason why Fields needs to keep developing that ability to be a pocket passer.

It's why very few running quarterbacks actually achieve real greatness and lead their teams to a Lombardi Trophy and extended success.

Look at the entire list of winning Super Bowl quarterbacks and the most mobile were Roger Staubach, Steve Young, Brett Favre, John Elway, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes.

Young and Wilson were real scramblers but none of the others were. Mahomes is a pocket passer first, who has great quickness but not necessarily tremendous speed. His 40 time wasn't even as good as Mitchell Trubisky's.

Young scrambled but became a pocket passer to become a Super Bowl winner.

This leaves only Russell Wilson as the lone example of a scrambling quarterback who won a Super Bowl. He needed possibly the third or fourth best defense in the history of the league to back him, but he did it.

Wilson also wasn't what you'd call a running quarterback along the lines of what Fields is doing or what Lamar Jackson does.

Wilson used and does use his legs looking to pass. He always has.

Right now Fields has 91 rushing attempts. Wilson ran more than 91 times for an entire 16-game schedule just five times and the most carries he ever had came in 2014 with 118. Fields is going to smash that. Wilson went over 100 carries only twice. He ran for more than 586 yards once. Fields already has 602 yards.

So there is no precedent for a running quarterback winning the Super Bowl, at least not one who is doing what Fields or what Lamar Jackson are doing. 

There are examples of scramblers making a Super Bowl. If making it there is all you want, go talk to Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher. They'll tell you what that's worth. Winning that game is what matters.

It's why Fields' game needs to continue to improve from inside the pocket and why his ability to judge when to use his legs must continue to improve.

Fields and His Carries Total

Eventually that 4.4-second speed goes away with age or injury and you're left trying to be a pocket passer.

Fields is averaging 10.1 rushing attempts a game, which if sustained puts him at 172 attempts for the year .

There is only one quarterback in one NFL season who did this or better and that's Jackson, who had 176 carries in 2019.

Jalen Hurts had 139 carries last year while running an attack not entirely unlike the one the Bears are now, but he has improved drastically as a pocket passer this year the way Fields must. 

Hurts might even wind up with as many carries as Fields this year, but he has a passer rating of 107.8 with 239 pass attempts. Fields, who has an 85.0 passer rating, has played one more game than Hurts and has 53 fewer throws.

What the Bears need is for Fields to develop as a passer. Then he can run to throw or run so that he's able to keep the ball and pass it on another play.

Then he will be a quarterback who can win a Super Bowl.

For Fields' to maximize his ability and career, he needs to become better from the pocket even if he dazzles now from outside of it.

Most Rushing Attempts by a QB

Single Season

176, Lamar Jackson, Baltimore, 2019

159, Lamar Jackson, Baltimore, 2020

147, Lamar Jackson, Baltimore, 2018

143, Bill Shepherd, Detroit/Boston, 1935

141, Bobby Douglass, BEARS, 1972

139, Jalen Hurts Philadelphia, 2021

139, Cam Newton, Carolina, 2017

137, Cam Newton, Carolina, 2020

133, Lamar Jackson, Baltimore, 2021

133, Kyler Murray, Arizona, 2020

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