Three Ways Justin Fields Benefits from Big Effort
On the surface, Saturday's Bears game against the Tennessee Titans looks like your usual final preseason game.
The starting quarterbacks won't play. The Bears will face, of all people, their own former backup Matt Barkley. The Bears won't have their own opening-day starter. Instead, they'll have the peoples' choice for opening-day starter, Justin Fields.
Matt Nagy pulled the plug on Fields starting the opener in favor of starting Andy Dalton long ago but for some reason many held out hope he might be persuaded otherwise.
This past week he made it clear Dalton starts the opener, and Fields starts Saturday's game.
So that's it?
Not exactly. This game has plenty of significance for Fields, the Bears offense and Dalton as it pertains to the future.
1. Fields as change of pace QB
Justin Fields could get onto the field against the L.A. Rams in the opener even if he isn't the starter and if he continues to produce in preseason it's likely to let Nagy look for ways to make this to happen. If Fields fails miserably to execute the offense and is only winging it, scrambling and throwing on the run the entire first half, then Nagy won't be as likely to seek ways to put Fields in as a "change of pace" quarterback.
Nagy was asked specifically this week if it's possible he could have particular plays or packages of plays where he got Fields into games either with Dalton on the field or as the quarterback by himself. He smirked, giggled a bit and generally did a poor job of disguising the fact it's something they will look at doing.
This would be trick or gadget situations, possibly things like the Saints had done with Taysom Hill, but not expecting him to take on tacklers the dangerous way Hill does.
It hasn't been difficult to see how Nagy loves the deodorizing effect of Fields' speed for the offense. If something breaks down or doesn't develop on a pass, Fields gets 20 yards scrambling when some other quarterback gets 5 or 6 yards. A 4.4-second 40-yard dash allows this.
"We were in a meeting in OTAs and it was funny because we were watching tape in the quarterback room and out of nowhere, Andy just goes to Justin, he says, 'What's it feel like to run a 4.4?' " Nagy recalled. "Not many people can do that at the quarterback position.
"But when you have designed runs and you have plays that break down, and he can just make anybody on the field not catch him, that's a pretty good strength that he has that a lot of guys don't have."
Some quarterbacks who run are runners but Fields knows his primary function.
"I don't think you see him overuse it; he just uses it when he needs to, in college. And it's worked for him," Nagy said.
Fields probably used it a bit too much in his first two preseason games but the real danger was how he often had the ball in bounds late on a play and was putting himself at risk. He had one run down the sidelines when he refused to simply step out of bounds and kept picking up yards.
"I like it when he doesn't get hit," Nagy said.
In live NFL games, he needs to go out. It might give Nagy more encouragement to use Fields this way if he knows Fields will run out of bounds or slide.
"We remind him all the time, 'Be smart. Be smart,' " Nagy said.
Fields in either a zone/read situation or in shotgun rolling could easily fit into the offense on opening day. The question is whether they want to risk his health with a gadget play. Last year they tried this one play against New Orleans after Mitchell Trubisky had been benched, and he suffered a shoulder injury. A strong, safe effort against Tennessee could convince the Bears of this.
2. The Bears backup will play
Fields has to be ready. Bears backups always play either because they must or because the starter has gone bust.
Considering their offensive line situation, odds are Fields will get in at some point.
They have 39-year-old Jason Peters or rookie right tackle Larry Borom protecting Dalton's blind side. Dalton isn't, to borrow a phrase Nagy used, a "stiff." Dalton can move some but he doesn't have eyes in the back of his helmet and is not especially mobile. They need to know Fields' mastery of the offense and opposing defenses are great enough to warrant playing him if something happens, so he needs to keep showing this against the Titans.
Otherwise, if it isn't they might as well have Nick Foles playing backup. And this wasn't part of their plan—at least this is what they say.
If Fields shows up in this final preseason game in a positive way, they really could also trade Foles to one of several teams who seem in need of a backup, thereby saving $4 million in cap space.
3. Keeping pressure on Dalton
This might be the most important aspect of this game for Fields. He could slack off and play poorly, do everything with his legs and coaches will sit him for the opener and he could stay there a long time. If he shows he can run the offense, it keeps pressure on Dalton to perform.
Nagy painted a picture of Dalton as an all-seeing, wise and talented performer in this offense already.
"But we like where Justin's at and seeing him grow and so that's what we've got to kind of talk through in these next couple weeks," Nagy said.
Some observers seized upon Nagy's last phrase about the next couple weeks as if it meant they might still consider starting Fields. They won't. But this is hardly a situation written in stone for the future.
Fields effort could impact how much they use him in a change-up quarterback role, but it also could determine when he really does start because Nagy admitted this week Dalton's hold on the position is only as good as his next effort.
"We'll see, but I would say yeah, big picture when we talked about this from the very start we said whoever is going to be best for the Chicago Bears and that's going to obviously deal with production and wins, right?" Nagy said. "So when you look at this thing you want to make sure we all support each other with one common goal—to win, and offensively to score touchdowns. And Andy knows that, Andy is well aware of that. Andy's excited for the opportunity to show what he can do with these starters and in this offense. And then we've just got to, every day we have to evaluate and we have to see where we're at every single day."
It's much easier for the evaluation to conclude Fields should start in the future if he plays well against Tennessee.
Nagy even admitted Dalton's hold on the position doesn't necessarily mean wins and losses.
"Again, to me, it's more of a feel, where you're at," Nagy said. "And what are the whys, right? What are the whys? And so when we all understand what the whys are whatever that is, and it doesn't just have to be offense.
"If you're winning or losing, why are you winning or losing? Once you get into that, that's my job as a head coach to be a decision-maker."
Uneasy lies the crown in this case for Dalton.
"Every quarterback in this league has a different story," Nagy pointed out. "There's good examples of guys that have played from Day 1 as a rookie. There's great examples of that. There’s also great examples of guys who haven't played from Day 1 and they've sat for a little bit. I'm talking about guys right now in the league. I'm talking about guys 10 years ago.
"We have to create our own way of how we do it."
Justin Herbert wasn't supposed to start initially for the Chargers. He didn't and he came in to start in Week 2. For the Bears, Week 2 is a home game against Cincinnati.
It's as good a point of entry for Fields as any and performing well against Tennessee could open the opportunity.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsonMaven
