Film Study: Why didn’t Justin Fields work out for the Chicago Bears?

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all right so I like to make these why blank didn’t work in the NFL videos I think that they’re interesting to look back and and kind of discuss what went wrong um so I want to make one for Justin Fields but Fields is a bit of an interesting person to make a video about this like right because he isn’t someone who completely didn’t work out at the NFL level he did have you know I thought an okay season last year it wasn’t great I didn’t think and you know it wasn’t great enough that the Bears did decide to move on from him and he was only able to get a sixth round pick back at the same time I don’t think it’s like over I think Fields could maybe one day still be successful at the NFL level so this is not a why did he not work out at the NFL level it’s going to be more so why didn’t he work out at the NFL level with the Chicago Bears cuz that we know didn’t happen you know in the fields era it just did not work uh again A lot of times these guys are complete flameouts that has not been the case with Fields but I wanted to discuss uh what went WR for fields and we’re actually going to use NFL tape but kind of talk about some college tape so yeah let’s just get into it first things first you can’t completely divorce situation from player um while at you know to some degree you certainly can still evaluate the one player in a given situation there’s no denying that the situation was not great for fields for most of the his tenure and I’m sure he’s a little bit bitter about the fact that right when he leaves they go out and trade for Keenan Allen and draft Romeo dun I I mean I think the Bears are doing the right thing kind of realizing they made a mistake and adjusting but for Fields it’s probably a little bit frustrating but you know there are plays like this where you have uh it’s you know Darnell Mooney running a deep shot down the field which I I like Mooney uh you know but still when this play begins you’re going to see Fields takes a snap you know one-on-one match up kind of throwing a little bit off balance due to pressure getting there and this isn’t very open and again Cleveland Browns defense did this to a lot of good receiving cores last year of not giving up too much of a win though but that’s that’s the situation Fields does make this throw and it’s just a bit off and like listen you can certainly sit here and say well if that throw was a little bit you know uh not quite as far could that maybe be a completion you you could make that argument for sure but I guess my counterargument to that is you’re putting fields in tough situations no wonder his hit rate is going to be lower than someone who’s in better situations if you have wideopen receivers you’re going to just hit them more frequently let’s just be honest Fields wasn’t exactly in the best of circumstances all the time for the Chicago Bears but let’s move on to this situation now where so you know a lot to unpack here you see its Zone coverage that the Cleveland Browns are in and you see the concept on the screen that the Bears will be running essentially though one of the more over the-middle routes that’s probably what could end up working for fields that that you know uh that’s where he’s going to be looking when this play begins however when this begins it’s not working out as designed again you could put some blame on the Bears for this as we certainly saw this many times over the years of guys not getting open granted there’s the other side of things of we also saw many times guys getting open and Fields not making the throw so it it would kind of go both ways a little bit but still here is to me an even bigger issue is this is something we saw in college which was when something wasn’t open he would still hold on to the ball for forever and it did not get much better at the NFL level as you see he holds on to the ball eventually starts to scramble but gets tackled right there he you know that internal clock for a lot of guys it’s okay I have to get rid of the football cuz something bad’s about to happen but with the emergence of Russian quarterbacks it starts to become okay I have to get outside the pocket cuz something bad’s about to happen the issue is you’re going to get some yes you’re going to get some good of that you’re also going to get some bad of that and while you saw some great scrambling from Fields you also saw a lot of stuff like this and you know a lot of times there’s more of these opportunities than the great scrambling opportunity although not every time and there also was a bit of just you know uh he he would sometimes just make the wrong decision I mean that’s just what would happen where this concept for example you know uh you see the two routes towards the offense’s left this is against Zone coverage here Fields is going to take the snap he eventually looks towards the left and you know is a little bit under pressure right here but can get outside the pocket so that’s what he’s going to of course try and do Fields would scramble outside the pocket he’s going to fire off balance and right here it’s I know it’s a little blurry sorry but there’s a a Browns player and a Bears player and really the Browns player has a better chance at this football than the Bears player does this is not a great decision by Justin Fields not saying he was doing this all the time or anything like that but he definitely would put the ball In Harm’s Way far too frequently that’s definitely something I noticed with him again this is something that was considered an issue back in college and in fact kind of his biggest Defenders would still acknowledge okay yeah there is this issue with him but you just hope that it doesn’t you know come back to bite him too much well uh you know on this one it came back to bite him and I think it it too often came back to bite him I think they were hoping he would get better at this stuff but that just doesn’t always happen and for Fields it it I think it got a little better I do but I don’t think it was better enough what’s interesting is that if you look at his uh Walter Football page this is prior to coming out of the draft these were his Pros uh you know accurate passer good arm strength can make all the throws which are all things I think were proven to be true and it’s a lot of you know good uh good armed Talent stuff you know we also see a lot of you know good athleticism Mobility that kind of stuff which was also very good um the the only ones that you kind of look back on uh is the bottom two which were upside and avoided turnovers overall the upside was certainly there and and we saw sometimes real flashes of it uh the avoided turnovers overall though is an interesting one because that’s very results oriented he did put the ball In Harm’s Way a lot the issue was he was in a good situation in college and wasn’t given the opportunities to put the ball In Harm’s Way as as frequently I thought which is kind of what led to that as for his weaknesses I mean we see the things that we’ve talked about you know poor pocket awareness can get rattled by the pass rush can freeze when seeing the blitz also a little bit down we see field Vision needs development uh and then right above that was needs to check the ball uh down more so you know those kind of things that we talked about and even uh needs to get uh get quicker working through progressions all of that stuff were things that you know we still saw issues with at the NFL level and this is why I find him to be such a unique player to talk about for someone like Justin Fields it’s kind of really easy to sit here and say you know what I want a guy like Fields who uh he sure he has some issues he needs to get quicker through progressions you know the blitz can uh you know uh disrupt him to pass rush can disrupt him holds on to the ball for too long all of those are fixable issues and they are and and maybe he still will fix those issues once he gets to Pittsburgh that’s certainly possible all of those are fixable issues at the same time though for uh four field it’s it’s sort of like just because those are fixable issues doesn’t mean they always get fixed also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t draft a player like Fields cuz there was the upside there is the athleticism and the armed talent and if he did get better at those things that he was not great at he could have been a legitimate star in this league so I actually think that even though I was a bit lower on fields I think if Fields came out today uh I came out of college today I would sit here and say you know uh I I would personally like him more as a prospect I think just given how I view quarterbacks now of hey there are you know there is a real benefit towards just drafting a guy who is a big a great athlete uh it could work out that being said I think it’s also fair to say you can’t just assume you’re going to get better at stuff you can’t just assume things are going to get better I think Fields got a little better at all this stuff but it just wasn’t enough so just cuz someone has you know a flaw that is maybe more uh mental Than Physical doesn’t mean that it’s going to be fixed just cuz it could be is kind of I think the main point with Fields but hey it could be fixed there still is time left his career is not done yet but for Chicago it did not work out but yeah those are my thoughts what are yours let me know in the comments below always love hearing from youall and of of course as always thanks for watching