1. Have the o-line be more discipline. Over the past couple years, drive have been stopped dead in there tracks by penalties. Guys are false starting or holding and that might wipe out a 3rd and 4 conversion and force us into a 3rd and 14. That is a coaching issue.

2. Come up with a scheme that allows our sub par o-line to pass block. It’s really hard to play QB when your o-line can’t hold their ground. The rookie and tevin both being in the left side will help a lot, but then our right side is gonna be trash.

3. Figure out ways to take shots downfield. Again, if you can’t hold a block and are getting a bunch of penalties it’s hard to throw downfield, but that is Justin’s strength and we need to figure out a way to take advantage of that. Our backup QB can dink and dunk down the field, but that’s not gonna win a lot of games in the long run. We can’t rely on calling 12 screens a game to get us down field. Take the top off the defense and make big plays.

4. Get the ball to our playmakers. They started doing this in that two week stretch when we were force feeding it to Moore and using Kmet when we get close to the end zone. But before that, it’s like we forgot that those guys can actually catch passes. Some of those were misses on Justin’s part, but they needed to keep with it, and when they did, it worked.

5. Run him more. Nuff said.

6. Get creative with the play calling. Use motion to confuse the defense or force them to show their hand. Have a diverse set of plays to call. I’m sure everyone remembers us calling three screens in a row when we were backed up to our own goal line and that caused a pick 6. Well if you call the same call out of the same formation 3 time in a row, the defense will know what’s coming. Use Mooneys speed by putting him in motion before the snap and get him downfield.

Those are just a few reasons that don’t have a whole lot to do with Justin, just coaches not being able to coach proper technique, being unimaginative, or not calling plays to our players strengths.

Cater playcalling to his strengths…similar to Harbaugh and Lamar

Blaming the coaches is just a lazy excuse for fans who bought his jersey and don’t understand football. For proof, count how many times you see comments blaming Eberflus for not developing him. As if the head coach works directly on individual player development.

Yes, all those things you mentioned have been done. There is a quarterbacks coach specifically for the job of working with the quarterback team and he spends most of his time working with the starter. There are also plenty of assistants. Fields has had all the help and coaching any other QB has had. He’s just not very good.

I think your understanding of “coaching” is rather limited. It’s not just watching film and going thru the playbook. In a QB case, it’s tailoring the offense to the QB strengths. For one example, the stats came out for the “quick game” (an offensive play that is run before the defense is completely set). Justin is statistically one of the best at it. It makes sense, the reason you run that is so the defense doesn’t have time to make adjustments to what the offense does and change the defense. So the Bears should be doing this a lot, right? 12%.

The first play against the Vikings. Getsy calls for empty backfield, 5 receivers send out against 0 coverage (no deep safety). Vikes rush 6, leaving a free rusher. Fields only option is a 5 yard pass that’s more than likely batted down or tipped. Fields is sacked. The week before, they kept the TE and RB to pass block and did extremely well. If they’d done that on the first play against the Vikes, it’s a likely TD.

Multiple times this year, the Bears have allowed a free rusher BY DESIGN and then blamed Fields on not being able to avoid it. Fields throws very well on the run, so why don’t they roll him out more? As far as running him, they almost seem to have to be guilted into doing it.

The single worst thing they do is to run nothing but option routes. Justin gets blamed a lot for not being able to read defenses. I don’t think that’s the real problem. The way the Bears offense is set up, each receiver has two routes called on each play. He “reads” his defender and decides which of the two routes he should run. Justin not only has to figure out what coverages he’s seeing but also figure out if the receiver sees it the same way. This creates too much doubt. Rodgers(who Getsy is trying to get Justin to emulate) had the same problem last year because he had a bunch of young receivers he hadn’t worked with. If a veteran like that can struggle with these concepts, is it really fair to expect Justin to be great at it?

The Vikings game was also a master class on how not to block. There were blown assignments constantly. Players not hearing the center making adjustments, so only half the half line would change. Guys not dealing with simple stunts by the defense. There was one defense that took 7 times before the OL blocked it correctly. Justin has a QB rating of over 100 with a clean pocket. Yet it’s rarely coached for him to get a clean pocket.

Now let’s compare this to other coaching. Russell Wilson only had to read half the field the first 2-1/2 years of his career. He wasn’t great at it, so instead of throwing him into the deep end, they eased him into reading defenses.

Ben Johnson, the OC of the Lions, uses a progressive read, similar to the old WCO. All but one of the receivers run a non-option route, the QB reads the coverage in a predetermined order, usually either left to right or vice versa. The QB knows exactly what his receivers are going to run and only needs to know what the defense will do. Johnson also employs his own way of doing the quick game. As soon as everyone is set, the ball is snapped, usually with no sound or motion needed. The defense is rarely completely ready.

In short, the offense isn’t catered to Justin. I’m sure that some will say “well if he’s really good it doesn’t have to be.” My answer is, do you want to develop an certain offense or a QB. Trying to find a QB that fits a certain offense, leads to the carousel of QB the Bears have employed. By the time you find one the offense and coaching staff has changed.

Well to start, his receivers need to be open. And for his receivers to be open, they need to be running in different directions (not the same exact spot on the field as another WR).

Is that you, Flus?

Coach harder

They really just need to solve for the blitz. Blitzing attacks Fields biggest weakness, holding onto the bal too long. Blitzing also is paired with man coverage usually which is something Fields can uniquely exploit by running. I think there has been such an emphasis on just being a passer this year that they’ve discouraged that. But it may make sense, when he sees a blitz coming at the line of scrimmage to audible into a run where you have WRs on the perimeter blocking and some linemen pulling to get some cheap yards.

I’m just a fan, but to me it looks like Fields wants to steal the other team’s soul by creating big plays even when the defense is specifically trying to stop that. And it looks like Getsy wants to bleed them to death via 1,000,000 paper cuts.

It’s less that I think Fields is right or Getsy is right. It is more that Field’s style is more fun when it works, and I’m not sure he has the patience or precision for Getsy. It feels more like a difference of philosophy than truly bad coaching

Have you seen any Ravens games? That.

Both can actually be true.

The coaching staff (Getsy in particular) has called plays that JF has had mixed results with, therefore he isn’t confident that the play will develop as planned.

Fields hasn’t done basic things that should get easy positive gains.

One example of both being true, the 1st play of the Minnesota game. Against a defense that blitzes as often as they do, you should start out by running the ball. Instead they come out 5 wide, no TE, no RB for extra pass pro. This is a bad play to start the game.

However, this was the 1st play of the game, they should have practiced it multiple times against different defensive fronts, so there is no reason for Fields to not know what to do with the ball.

This is a great question. I think Fields deservedly takes a lot of the blame, but so should the coaches. Obviously I’m just a fan, but here’s my take.

1. During the off-season the coaches concentrated on improving his weakness (quick game) and it didn’t work. It also doesn’t really raise the ceiling on this offense that much imo. I think with a solid run game (QB and RBs and even WR reverses) this shouldn’t have been a priority. This somewhat comes across as almost an ego play where a coaching staff wants to feel like they are the reason for winning a game. Fields strength imo really could be the intermediate passing game if we focused around it instead.

2. The plays. So many film reviews analyzing our plays and going “what the fuck is this”. Pointing out the players being confused on what to do. Calling the same EXACT play twice in a row. Calling three straight screens multiple times.

3. Rhythm. Running the ball on first down too much. Fields unfortunately needs to gain a rhythm to perform in games. Asking him to only throw and read a defense on third downs is too much for him and many other quarterbacks. Additionally there are certain types of plays to help a QB get a rhythm, and they are not quick screens unfortunately for Fields. Rollouts, sprint outs, etc are often mentioned, and it was disappointing how little of them we used early in the season. My non-expert opinion would be to include more 3 step drops from under center. Fields has looked bad at RPOs, but practicing that more would have hopefully led to better results… I’m generally against design QB runs, but combined with an RB option I think could be successful. A final point on rhythm is that Fields himself has said that he was expected to throw with footwork timing, and it’s been too much for him. I don’t know who should get the majority of the blames on this one, but at the very least you should notice this issue in training camp and re-adjust. Fields really lacks chemistry with all of his receivers honestly (even Moore to some level), so something else which could have been emphasized.

4. Nagy’s biggest problem was the lack of development with individual players. Our oline always just got worse and worse. It was always about “RUN MY BEAUTIFUL PLAYS”. Led to good chemistry though. This offense seems to be opposite. Except maybe with “RUN MY BEAUTIFUL SCREENS” somewhat haha. Good individual player development, but little chemistry. I feel like it’s growing with the oline, but not with the passing game really. It really feels like our quarterbacks don’t understand who they are throwing to sometime.

I think we should draft another quarterback and also get a new OC this offseason. I’m fine keeping Fields on the roster if he wants to compete next year.

Look at his strengths and build an offense around that. Game plan for your opponent. Make in-game and halftime adjustments, when your gameplan isn’t working.

Every coach in this franchise has somehow ignored the simple 10 yard slant route like you have seen Green Bay do to us for 30 years.

That’s a start

Week 7 Last year, Getsy talked about how he stole plays from Baltimore. That would have been my deepest secret.

How could an NFL Offensive Coordinator admit to taking so damn long to adopt plays that would help his rookie quarterback succeed. His offense was entrusted with the responsibility to develop a quarterback that the future of the franchise was depending on, and he didn’t think to look at what made other quarterbacks like Fields successful? Embarrassing. Fields deserves so much better.