@@Chicago Bears

[Kyle Brandt] A final post-mortem on Fields’ time in Chicago: “Yes, I like Justin Fields. He blew it. Yes, I like the Bears. They blew it.”

  • March 18, 2024


One of the only reasonable takes I've seen from someone in the national media. Worth the 2 minute watch.

30 comments

  3. People always wanna blame the bears organization but Justin fields blew it as well. Didn’t show any franchise QB upside.

  4. it totally feels like politics. also feels like twitter helped to divide the fanbase into a binary war (justin vs caleb) similar to the 2020 election, but in a lot less time? Weird situation all around.

  5. I don’t really know what more people wanted Poles to do. He took over a total rebuild and has done a pretty good job building the team so far. He didn’t draft Fields and gave him plenty of leash to prove he could be the franchise guy. Players who don’t perform are traded or not re signed, Fields just ended up being one of those players.

  6. I’m never gonna get used to the guy from The Real World being on the NFL Network

  7. Yeah I mean usually when a QB comes in, they at least come in to a team that is on the build part of the rebuild. We were on the tear down part when he started lol. So yeah I mean I think we kind of put him in a bad spot to start off. He still had plenty of opportunities to succeed and just didn’t. We would probably still be rocking with him if we didn’t have the first pick this year, so he also got the shit end of that stick as well it seems. Oh well. This FO is good, this team is good and I think once we draft Caleb we will be great.

  9. Fair. I also assume Poles was asked when hired whether he thought Fields was the guy and said no. Because he had no problem ripping the team down to the studs that first year, which meant no help for Fields. He didn’t give Fields a fair chance – and that’s harsh, but acceptable if Poles knew Fields wasn’t his guy.

  10. If Kyle were to share his comment here, he would be downvoted immediately because people here are too extremists on the whole Fields vs Caleb and just forget to see the big picture.

  11. What I find funny in this whole situation is how because it’s the Bears there seems to be a large contingent of people who believe Fields has no culpability and everything that has happened is the Bears failing him and screwing him where the simple facts are that while the Bears certainly didn’t do him any favors in firing their entire organization after his rookie year you can’t convince me that Poles and this front office didn’t give him every possible chance to prove to them that he has the potential to be their franchise quarterback. He just wasn’t good enough and was a victim to having the Bears somewhat luck into the first overall pick in a draft where there is a quarterback that everyone has been salivating over for 3 years

  14. I think a big problem here, and Brandt alluded to this, it feels like a political debate. Each side thinks the other is a genuinely bad person because of their opinion. I am willing to bet most of us fans like Justin the person, want him to succeed, but also understand he was not the guy for us. In a perfect world, Justin is the guy but that isn’t how it played out.

  19. I was ok with Fields staying but I sure won’t miss those 100 yard passing games.

  20. The “Bears” didn’t blow it. Lame ducks Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace ruined any chance that Fields ever had. They should take like 90+% of the blame here.

    Poles did not draft Fields, and there were questions about his commitment to Fields right after Poles was hired. The fact that Poles gave Fields chances and still put him in the best scenario he could despite missing out on some draft capital potentially speaks positively about Poles and the current administration, not negatively.

    Fields got the raw deal of falling to a GM and Coach who were in win now mode, and should have never been drafted by the Bears in the first place if they weren’t confident he would improve the *current* team at the time.

  21. The situation certainly wasn’t perfect, but to be fair – plenty of QBs come into situations that aren’t ideal.

    Unfortunately the NFL is a harsh business and outside of some very fortunate players like Mahomes and Purdy most QBs have to sink/swim in less than ideal circumstances.

  22. Absolutely bullshit. He wasn’t in the best spot, but no amount of coaching can fix slow processing ability.

    While you can make it work for a season or 2 like a lot of big name backup/bridge QBs, it’s not going to be sustainable success unless they somehow have great talent around them every single season.

    Guys like Brian Hoyer (19 TDs and 7 Ints) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (31 TDs and 15 Ints) had seasons where they put up solid box score numbers when playing in good situations. But it never held up long term because they didn’t have the processing ability

    NFL Starters will not have ideal situations every single season due to the hard cap.

  23. This “Bears failed Justin” is so stupid. The Bears are more to blame for picking Justin with all his problems in the draft, than to be blamed for actually developing him. The team gave him opportunities to show and learn for 3 seasons, he didn’t develop any of his issues that were known before the draft. Him not winning games was never a problem, but he needs to show that he can process the field and be a minimum viable passing QB in the NFL, you can’t put that all on his Bears coaches, players often hire external coaches and do camps in the offseason to try to improve their issues, Justin seemed to never really care too much for that, he cared more about his body than actually learn how a 2024 NFL offense works.
    Not all NFL QBs get to a team in the best of situations, Burrow came to the NFL with some pedestrians blocking for him. TLaw Jaguars were trash as well, he was drafted for a 2 victory season Jaguars with some improved roster in the FAs, but trash team overall. They all showed signs that they can lead an NFL team to the playoffs even in their trash first season, we haven’t seen that with Justin in 3 seasons.
    Other important thing that should be learned from JF is how we misvalue talent in NFL. No matter how athletically you are at the position of QB, the most important talent that matter is your ability to process the field, I keep hearing that JF have “all the talent in the world” but he failed in the single most important QB attribute that matters, he’s not so talented as most people assume, he was not even viewed as the top 3 QB in his class, why we treat him as if he was like an Andrew Luck or Cam Newton prospect?

  24. The development of Fields was a textbook example of what NOT to do. Bring in an aging vet, trade up in the 1st to get him, then give him 0 reps in training camp with the 1s. Then, after barely surviving, tear down for a rebuild.

    Year 1 on the org, year 2 on the shitty situation, and year 3 on Fields. Move on and move up. Good luck Fields. I hope you put Russ out of a job.

  25. Facts are he came in when the roster was shit and needed overhaul. Fields can’t be blamed for that. He can be blamed for not stepping up when he could have after that. His pre-draft cons and weaknesses never got better and never overcame his positives.

  26. Fields missed out on having a year in which he was allowed to just sling it without pressure to win. Year 1 was that chance but GM and coach had to save their jobs. Year two he had no chance as he had no talent around him.

  28. It’s wild to see what Justin came into the league with and what presumably Caleb will be coming into. Night and day

  29. Yes and no. Fields was put in a no-win situation with an HC/OC who didn’t want him in Nagy, and then a GM whose plan didn’t include him in Poles and an OC who was in over his head in Getsy.

    Obviously Fields didn’t learn but it’s hard to learn calculus when your teachers don’t understand basic algebra or don’t want to teach it to you.

  30. The desperation heave to get Fields and put him on a shit heap that would take his entire rookie contract to fix was possibly not a good move by Ryan Pace.

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