Justin Fields: Too good to be Tru

The performance of the new quarterback, who will make his NFL debut debut, could have exceeded expectations.

We always evaluate this issue without context, NFL analyst Mark Schlereth said. I don’t know what the name of the play was. I don’t know what the route progressed, many times. I mean, you don’t see it in the TV copy. But here you can see: You can see a great balance. You can see the guy who ruled. You can see the guy that even though he had these midfield readings and they ran a lot of boots and those things, he understood the progress. He figured out where he had to go with the football, and then he got up from place 1 to place 2 and made accurate throws.

I looked at it and said: That dude looks respectful. I know he’s playing against the second and third sets, but it went to the test, he knew what he was doing, and he showed respect and led his football team.

It was Schlereth, a two-time Pro Bowl guard and a three-time Super Bowl winner, who echoed the feelings of many The Herd experts the next day … after Mitch Trubisky’s dazzling debut.

In fact, Trubisky was as much a revelation against his pre-season debut against the Broncos at Soldier Field as Justin Fields last Saturday against Dolphins. Trubisky made the first 10 passes. He ended up performing 18 of 25 passes at 166 yards, one touch and no spaces with a 103.1 bypass rating.

Like Fields against the dolphins, Trubisky made his first blow by scoring in the final possession of the first half, and the two-yard touch ended in an open Victor Cruz. Like Fields, he led the Bears to 17 points, two goals and a field goal. And like Fields, Trubisky refreshed the home crowd with its mobility. He rushed three times to a 38-yard run of 10, 12, and 16 yards during the first downhills.

And just like Fields, many of us burst not only into what Trubisky did, but how he did it.

Trubisky just didn’t play well. He lit a spark, I wrote the next day. He was focused, determined, determined and precise. He rushed without panic. And his teammates seemed to follow his example.

Now we know how it ended. Trubisky struggled for four seasons as a beginner with the Bears, but they made it to the playoffs in 2018 and 2020. The ranges of excellence he showed were usually bad against defenses. Most of his success was behind the wind. Whenever the difficulty level was raised, Trubisky struggled.

The Bears eventually got tired of this inconsistency and failure to evolve, and Trubisky was released from office after last season. Unable to find even a chance to compete for a start-up job, he landed on the Bills as a backup to Josh Allen. Hell begins against the Bears on Saturday in Soldier Field’s pre-season game, which could potentially respond to Fields in an almost poetic battle of No. 2 defenders.

Trubiskys ’humiliating NFL trip makes its impressive debut a somewhat cautionary story as Chicago bathes in Fields’ performance splendor against Dolphins. It’s a little too early to go too crazy.

Apparently we don’t know where the Fields train is going after just one pre-game. And we know all too well that there is no definite information about bears and their defenders.

But this is also clear only months after the process: Justin Fields is not Mitch Trubisky. As a quarterback, he is a different animal, a better athlete with better quarterback instincts and a better chance of success for coach Matt Nagy, striker coordinator Bill Lazor and defender coach John DeFilippo.

Much still needs to go right. And perhaps it turns out that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan knew what he was doing when he chose North Dakota State instead of Trey Lance Fields in the draft. Perhaps it turns out that the Broncos were right to miss the opportunity to draw fields number 9, take corner striker Patrick Surtain II and settle for a quarterback battle between Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock.

But the first round of draft Fields is not Trubisky. Far from it. Trubisky can sometimes become a successful NFL game builder. He has physical tools. But from the day he arrived in Chicago, Trubisky was a line-up-demanding quarterback who was able to play at a high level but showed little instinct for it. All the parts need to be in just the right place for him to be at his best.

Nam Y. Huh / AP Photos

The fields, on the other hand, are much closer to plug and play, speed, arm power, and intuition about playing a quarterback, which is likely to shorten his learning curve. Trubisky speed is an advantage. The speed of the field is a weapon. Difficult runs. Fields of darts. Trubisky’s movement threatens to defend. Fields have a speed that can put fear in defense.

Nagy compared Trubiskys ’running ability to the Fields and Trubisky was a much more powerful threat in 2018 when he rushed 68 times to 421 yards (average 6.2) and three goals. But this part of his game decreased in 2019 (48-193, 4.0, two touch) and 2020 (33-195, 5.9, one touch).

The fields are at different levels. It was never clearer than his eight-yard cross-country run against dolphins. On the second and goal from Dolphins ’8-yard line, Fields found no receiver, retreated to 17 as he escaped pressure, turned left, and jumped into the finish area untouched until he reached the finish line. From the moment he turned at the age of 17, it was clear he was going to score a goal. That’s the next level of speed.

He has that kind of gun on his feet, Nagy said. [DeFilippo] talking about it all the time Take advantage of it. Take away. You have a rare speed as a quarterback. There aren’t a lot of guys with that speed that can throw like you.

Fields arms also have a big difference.

The guy can really throw the ball, Jimmy Graham said. It was impressive to see his arm.

Trubisky had a good but not a large arm with the Bears, losing significant accuracy in deep balls. The fields have yet to show hell to be more accurate in deep throws, but his medium throw zipper is particularly impressive. When he sees the window close, he has the ability to increase speed.

He is able to make every throw on the field, Nagy said. It’s something we see every day, and it’s fun to see him learn and get better every day with the things we do with our insult, how he receives it, and things like that. It was fun to follow him.

Fields has yet to demonstrate that he can use his tremendous skill against NFL competition at regular season game speed. And his mechanics need to be honed as he moves into the NFL. But in the future, he will have a better foundation and not just obvious things like speed and arm. His footwork already gets good reviews from coaches.

It’s important that you have big feet in your pocket because it’s all based on the timing of wide-range receivers and narrow ends and vehicles within the progression, Nagy said. If your feet become careless, your timing will be interrupted and the game can become chaotic.

Trubisky struggled with it, at least consistently.

At the beginning of the game, he’s pretty tight [with footwork] and looks good, DeFilippo said when it began partnering with Trubisky in the mid-2020s. But as the game continues, it sometimes seems to leave him.

Fields developed footwork through baseball into a star with college-level potential. He has a role to play in this area, but he is making progress.

Justin has a good rhythm in his pocket. I think you can see it, Nagy said. He doesn’t have fast and happy legs. He understands the stretch of his drop … like slowly five strokes against a quick connector. He will understand if you have a slider to the right / throw to the left. He has a good feeling about it.

Ultimately, Fields ’ability to learn tells a story. The speed of the game didn’t surprise him against Dolphins, but regular season NFL football is played on another level. Everything had to be in place for Trubisky to grow. But Fields has physical abilities that give him a higher margin of error and a better instinct for a task that gives him a better chance of success.

Justin has shown a lot of advanced traits since he’s been here, and he’s done a good job, DeFilippo said. Justins is interested in football. She loves football. And that’s the first thing you get with these guys, do they love football?

If they do, they will usually be able to stabilize the boat in rocky and good times. That’s Justins ’trait as a quarterback: He loves football.