Quicker Throws Sought from Justin Fields

Bears quarterback has picked up the pace of his delivery but it needs to become even faster.

One month after Justin Fields had been tracked by NextGen Stats as the NFL's slowest quarterback to release the ball, it's no longer true.

He's faster at getting rid of it than Jets QB Zach Wilson but no one else. Wilson has played in only three games due to injury, so the comparison isn't quite on a level playing field.

This is the bad news. 

The good news is Fields actually has gotten faster than he was a month ago by quite a bit.

He avera ged 3.26 seconds until releasing the ball after two games. Four weeks later he is down to 3.03 seconds. He's in 37th overall among quarterbacks but within 0.13 seconds of five others.

"Yeah, just like we’ve been saying, and I think he's been improving on it," coach Matt Eberflus said. "It's his footwork and the timing, and we think he's doing a good job with that. 

"We did a few different things (on offense) last time, in the last game, I think, that helped him and so we're just looking forward to doing some more of that and going through this process."

They can help him with better protection and play calling.

When you're talking about a tenth of a second, it doesn't seem like much or like it's even an issue. However, he was faster to get rid of it than Jalen Hurts (3.12) last season and also Lamar Jackson (2.96) and Wilson (3.0).

Considering Fields has been thrown into a new offense and hasn't yet started a full season's worth of games—he will have Monday night—it's probably not surprising his time to throw slowed a bit from last year to this year. 

However, speeding up at the rate at which he has could eventually get him faster than last year when the Bears were in a more pocket-oriented attack than now.

And Everflus thinks it is possible to improve time to throw. Hurts was an example of this. He's down about four-tenths of a second since last year.

"I think you can make small, incremental improvements as you go," Eberflus said. "I think that's with anybody.

"I think you can learn to read your keys and see what the coverages are faster. I think you can identify that pre-snap, post-snap a little bit faster and I think you can do that."

Eberflus called getting rid of the ball faster very important for Fields before this season even started, and he doesn't back off of it now even if it means his quarterback is the one being judged as slow.

"But getting the ball out of your hands fast puts pressure on the defense," Eberflus said. "It does.

"When you're, for example, when they pressure and you get the ball out of your hands to a hot answer or a looky or whatever that might be and you hit him in stride and get the runner running in a positive way that's always hard on the defense. You know, it's always something you have to work on. You know under center getting the ball out quick. From the shotgun getting the ball out quick. It's all about footwork and how we deliver the ball."

Is it all on Fields? Eberflus wasn't going to go so far as to point fingers of blame at his coaching staff but did say the self-scout conducted over the mini-bye showed some instances where coaching had failed players. He just didn't say who—coach or player.

"So I think you always have to look at that on all sides of the ball," Eberflus said. "And do we maximize our guys in position to make plays on both sides of the ball? Are we doing those in special teams?

"And we’re looking at all those things right now."

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