Justin Fields Can Use a Little Stability

Bears QB has been through a gauntlet as he prepares to make his 25th NFL start.

It's been 24 starts with only five wins for Bears quarterback Justin Fields.

All the while, there have been two coaching staffs, two different offenses, and three head coaches including interim Chris Tabor when former coach Matt Nagy had COVID-19. Fields has endured nine different starting wide receivers, four different starting running backs and 13 weeks when there were changes to the starting offensive line. 

He has had cracked ribs, an ankle sprain, COVID-19, a separated shoulder and now his foot has been stepped on.

All Fields seems to need is some stability, but he won't get it this week against Detroit as the Bears have practiced without wide receivers Chase Claypool and Equanimeous St. Brown, and with a new offensive line. Again.

Getting him a little more talent will need to wait until after the season. 

Fields will try to cope in Detroit Sunday, as usual.

"I think every game, even this game, it's a learning opportunity," Fields said. "When those backups do come in and they're actually starting this game, it's just an opportunity for me and them to grow during practice, grow during that week and me being on the same page as them.

"Of course (Darnell) Mooney (on IR), Chase and those guys, they haven't been able to run routes after practice so I've been able to run routes after practice. So I've been getting extra routes with the guys that maybe didn't do it as much earlier in the year. It's been good just growing those relationships and just trying to be on the same page as them."

Byron Pringle, Velus Jones Jr., N'Keal Harry, Nsimba Webster and possibly Dante Pettis look like his targets for this week, although Pettis is practicing only on a limited basis due to an ankle injury.

Fields' available wide receivers have 22 catches between them this season, 39 if Pettis is able to go.

"That relationship is the most important," Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "The scheme gives you the opportunity, the player brings the play to life. When it's two guys working together, that relationship, that connection, that's vital."

Considering last year's rookie debacle under Nagy, all the running he has done, the changing offensive lines and the receiver parade, Fields admits he feels like he's been through a gauntlet.

"I feel like I have. I feel like I have," he said. "A lot of stuff. But it is what it is. I'm just going to deal with it, deal with it as it comes, and make the best out of the opportunities that I do have."

The chance to start an NFL game and get his sixth win as a starter is what drives Fields now. He has no intention of shutting down for the year.

"I think every game, even this game, it's a learning opportunity," Fields said. "When those backups do come in and they're actually starting this game, it's just an opportunity for me and them to grow during practice, grow during that week and me being on the same page as them."

Fields could easily be shut down the final two games but coach Matt Eberflus wants no part of this, either. He wants to see more of the team forming around his quarterback.

"He's done well," Eberflus said. "I mean if you look at how he is progressing during the course of the year with all the different lineups up front, all the different receiver lineups, with losing (Khalil) Herbert for quite an extended period of time, I think he has done well.

"You know he has improved his game, and we are excited to see where these last two games are gonna go."

Getsy says Fields, if entirely healthy, misses out on a valuable learning experience if they suddenly tell him to sit the last two games in favor of Nathan Peterman.

"Every opportunity and every experience we can get him, expose him to, will create a better version of him,"  Getsy said. "Anytime anybody experiences something for the first time, right, you handle it better the next time and the third time and the fourth time and the fifth time."

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