Out of curiosity I pulled up the complete stats for all Chicago Bears passers on https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/chi/career-passing.htm. I was interested in seeing how Justin Fields W-L ratio stacked up to other QBs, however when I selected yardage as the criteria to sort out the QBs I was genuinely surprised to see how closely Kyle Orton and Justin Fields stack up in terms of their passing stats for the same number of games played with the club. Both currently sit at a total of 33 games, however their total passing yardage is nearly identical:
At 33 games:
Kyle Orton: 5319 yards
Justin Fields: 5313 yards
Fields has a higher completion percentage (60.1%), however one could argue that is because he often runs the ball out of bounds rather than throwing it away when under pressure. Fields also has a higher TD %, but also a higher INT %. Otherwise, it’s strange to see how closely their passing stats match even though Orton was seen as a stopgap QB at best in an era where we had a strong defense and Fields has been promoted (at least in the past) as a ‘generational’ QB by his fans and the club.
It’s also interesting to look at overall QB W-L records. Fields obviously has one of the worst W-L records in team history (and it looks like the absolute worst with over 20 starts, as his percentage is down there with Cade McNown, who had fewer starts), but I was honestly surprised to see that Grossman’s W-L record was nowhere near what I somehow remembered it being.
My takeaway is this, as someone who is tired of all the excuses for Fields and is becoming motivated to post here by all the ‘ride or die with Fields’ mentality: I don’t believe Fields is the future and think his stans are not paying attention, however he is about equal as a passer to all the mediocre QBs that we eventually moved away from in the 2000s. His passing stats, based on this chart, basically fall within the Orton-Grossman-Miller range of the 2000s. These were QBs who had some good moments, but they were all guys the Bears moved on from after they got past 30 games. Cutler’s stats are significantly better and I feel guilty for bashing on the guy back in the day:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/chi/career-passing.htm
Hmm, I wonder what the difference between Fields and Orton is, oh yeah, Fields ran for over 1000 yards at 7 yards per carry last year. Now he’s running less and passing more and he’s better than he was last year.
You can think we need to move on if we have a chance to draft Williams/Maye (I’m leaning that way) without saying absurd things like he’s the same as Kyle Orton
Except 17 games of fields career were accepted as a wash by this entire fan base. They understood, last year, he did not have the weapons to succeed. Numerous games last year he was nearly the sole reason we were in games.
“Accepted as a wash by the entire fan base”… I don’t really get that argument… at all. It’s like a little kid who flunks a class and then says, “Yeah, I flunked because I considered my first ten exams to be a wash, but I did Ok in my last 5 exams so I should pass.” You are basically picking and choosing what should or should not be taken into account. If you edit out what gets counted, you can always end up with a positive evaluation because you are artificially removing anything that looks bad.
And let’s finally be honest here: Fields did not look all that great in most of his games this year. He basically had one good game. In the others he was starring down the headlights like a deer on the road in New Lennox at 3 AM. I hope that you don’t blame his play this year on the O-Line/Receivers/Coaches/Team/City, etc, as the same people who claim Bagent is 2-2 because he suddenly has great support are the same people who claim Fields has a drastic loss ratio because of the same people.
And finally, the last few years were not immediately accepted by all fans as obvious wash years. There were people - here - who seriously thought we would be contenders in his first full year. The whole ‘we didn’t plan on winning’ argument is a rewrite of history.
Because the play calling kept trying to make him be a pocket passer when he isn’t. Either call games to his strengths or watch him he trash. You don’t call a Tom Brady style offense with a mobile quarterback.
I get what you’re saying I do, I do think it’s fair to point to the point totals given up last year and this year. That would in theory give him more wins if they simply held a team to 20 points lol. And I think even you’d agree the last 2 years we’ve started the season with so many missed assignments for blocking and route running… and what have you and I understand that fields takes a share of the blame… but dudes were legit missing blocks early last year and early this year. And that to me is coaching. Fields hasn’t been perfect by any means. But to point to bagent and say yep. He’s 2-2, the team was rounding into form when Justin got hurt. Defense was starting to stop the run, and offense was scoring points. I think we are all in same boat here. Fields haters and truthers. We just want a winning product. The haters want it now… and I think the truthers know that this is it for fields. He sinks for swims. But we both just want success that translates to wins. And football is the ultimate team sport.
Stroud is doing it right now. Fields is a huge reason it was a “wash”.
The fan base has no idea what good QB play looks like and constantly makes excuses for him because he’s likable.
Fields is a career killer. Every single player or coach he works with leaves town with a worse reputation than they had before working with fields.
I don’t think the idiots get to speak for the whole fanbase
Every single time Fields tries to lead a game winning drives it either ends in a sack or a turnover.
The Bears never win close games with Fields and that’s a huge reason why they’ve gone 3-17 in their past 20.
EQSB dropped 4th down pass against dolphins? PI on claypool not called the play before?
Yeah, having a 32nd ranked scoring defense last year had nothing to do with those losses. All on Fields.
So when Caleb’s defense shits the bed it’s perfectly fine.
But Fields sucks because he didn’t play better defense/blocking/receiving. Got it.
This is a passing league. It wasn’t in mid 2000’s. It’s hard to compare them.
Well people still say that Orton should have started in the Super Bowl and we never gave him a chance. So the fact that fields is on par with his passing numbers must mean he’s an all timer
Its crazy folks here think Orton was a great “game manager” and took what the defense gave him or whatever yet Fields’ completion percentage (tho not good enough) is higher lol