Just when it felt like Justin Fields was back on track, the QB suffered a hand injury in Sunday's loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The play happened in the third quarter. The Vikings only sent a three-man rush, but the Chicago Bears' offensive line collapsed, forcing Fields to scramble before he was driven hand-first into the turf.
Fields immediately went to the tent before walking to the locker room shaking his hand. He was initially listed as questionable before being downgraded to out. His replacement is rookie Tyson Bagent, who quickly fumbled into a scoop-and-score.
Not ideal for the Chicago faithful.
The final verdict on Fields' injury has not been passed. The obvious hope is that it's a short-term setback, but this is all an unfortunate reminder of the non-ideal circumstances Fields has faced to begin his career.
As Fields battles another barrier to success in a cutthroat league, let's pin blame on who has made life so difficult for the 24-year-old.
3. Everybody on the offensive line
Certain members of the offensive line deserve more blame than others, but the Bears have continually failed to place Fields behind a stable front wall. Fields has managed to stave off significant injury for the majority of his career, but he's a frequent victim of bumps and bruises — cracked rib, pulled groin, strained shoulder — much of which can be tied back to poor pocket protection.
Fields opens himself up to additional scrutinty with his tendency to scramble (and not always with the safest technique), but the Bears' inability to keep defenders off their QB has been a huge deterrent for Fields, both on the injury front and in terms of production. It's hard to play efficient, mistake-free football with a hand in your face.
Since 2022, Fields has been sacked 75 times. That's the most of any NFL QB. Fields is not blameless — he holds the ball a lot and is a natural risk-taker — but the numbers are irrefutable. The Bears simply do not protect Fields enough to expect sustained, elite-level production from the No. 11 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
2. Matt Eberflus and coaching changes
Matt Eberflus has become a weekly staple on our coaching hot seat column. The Bears' inability to execute on either side of the line of scrimmage can be directly tied to poor coaching. Fields called out his coaches earlier in the season, so we aren't the only ones placing blame here.
"It could be coaching, I think. But at the end of the day, they're doing their job when they're giving me what to look at and stuff like that, but at the end of the day I can't be thinking about that when the game comes. I prepare myself throughout the week and then when the game comes, it's time to play free at that point. Thinking less and playing more."
Fields later tried to walk back his comments, but it's generally smart to put stock in a player's honest, unfiltered thoughts — not his PR damage control hours later. Fields is not blameless, but he clearly believes in his preparation and talent. It's not difficult to understand his frustration watching the Bears week to week either. Time and time again, Fields looks misused or plain hung out to dry.
Plus, it's not hard to pin Fields' own shortcomings on the coaches who are supposed to shape him. If your young QB struggles to process the defense and make quick decisions, that's on both the QB and the folks paid to teach him. If the offensive line constantly collapses, if the run game can't support Fields, if the WRs are seldom open, that's on the coaching staff. Not the QB.
Maybe Fields doesn't have the juice. Maybe he's too inconsistent, too combustable to build a reliable NFL offense around. It's hard to say because we haven't seen him with the same coaching staff and a decent collection of teammates for long enough. Before the Eberflus mess, it was Matt Nagy. An offensive coach, which is a start, but a chronically unsuccessful one — and, crucially, one the Bears gave up on.
It's easy to say the Bears should fire Eberflus, but by that same token, Fields would benefit from growing stably over time with the same coaching staff. It's a pickle.
1. Ryan Poles and Bears' front office
Bears GM Ryan Poles and the front office are, of course, the primary culprits. At the end of the day, the Bears front office deserves to take heat on several fronts. Was Fields the right pick? If he was, why not invest more substantially in the O-line and the receiving corps? The few times Chicago has invested in those areas, it has backfired in a major way. What's up with that?
The Bears infamously traded out of the No. 1 pick, then the No. 9 pick, to select Tennessee offensive lineman Darnell Wright at No. 10 overall in April's NFL Draft. On the surface, that's an investment in Fields' pass protection. The only problem is that the difference is barely felt and the Bears passed up on either better QBs or a serious defensive upgrade to invest in a broken offensive line.
Chicago traded out of the No. 1 pick, in part, to acquire D.J. Moore. He's a talented WR who has been chronically under-utilized in the Bears' offense (blame which reflects back to Eberflus and O.C. Luke John Getsy). Last season, Chicago burned a second-round pick on Chase Claypool, who caught fewer than half his targets as a Bear before pitching a fit and getting traded for pennies on the dollar.
The Bears have either not tried hard enough to build around Fields or failed miserably in every attempt to bolster the roster around the Ohio State product. Fields can only do so much with a constant stream of pressure in the pocket and a mismatched collection of playmakers in a poorly designed system.