How Bears are building best version of Justin Fields originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LAKE FOREST – There was one play during Justin Fields' relatively impressive preseason debut that offensive coordinator Luke Getsy didn't like. Fields dropped back and went through his progressions quickly before vacating the pocket and sliding after a minimal gain.
Getsy told reporters Monday that Fields skipped the second read in his progression and left the pocket too early.
Getsy, head coach Matt Eberflus, and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko have been hard at work this offseason trying to build a better Justin Fields. The Bears' new regime saw talent and untapped potential in the tape from Fields' rookie season. But they wanted him to finetune his mechanics and improve his footwork and pocket presence to get Fields' movements and decision-making in sync with how the offense operates.
It has been a tedious and ongoing process. One that started with Fields, Eberflus, and the staff watching film from the quarterback's rookie season to pinpoint areas that needed to be reworked.
Fields took to the instruction immediately, putting his head down and getting to work at fixing and polishing the aspects of his mechanics the staff highlighted.
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Teaching a young quarterback, especially one as athletically gifted as Fields, to hang in and climb the pocket isn't a one-lesson or one-practice exercise. What it mostly boils down to, as Getsy and Janocko will tell you, is reps.
"I think it's just feel and it's experience," Janocko said Tuesday. "As you gain experience, as you gain reps, live reps, where you're actually getting hit and stuff, that's something that you can improve upon as you go and it's something that we're going to constantly teach, focus on and understand that he also has a special ability to do stuff above that.
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"So, it's building that balance between, staying in progression, trusting, when the receivers are going to come open, feeling the windows, and then when he has to get out and do something above the Xs and Os."
Fields wants to win from the pocket. He wants his capability to beat teams with his legs and create off-schedule plays to accentuate his ability as a thrower. To do that, he'll have to develop a better feel for the pocket by listening to his feet.
"What are your feet telling you where I need to go with the ball?" Janocko said when explaining the keys to improved pocket presence. "How are my feet aligned? Are my feet taking me to the target? Are my feet getting my shoulder to the target? Then as the down progresses, as we get later in the shot clock, how many hitches am I on?
"Depending on the play every play is different. Every expectation of the play is different. Every action is different, so how are my feet telling me when it's time to move on, when it's time to climb the pocket and then are my feet pitter pattering and am I too late for the throw. If that is the case, I got to move on and I got to either check the ball down or take off."
Fields has been quick and decisive during training camp as he has worked behind a rotating cast of offensive linemen and with a slew of different receivers.
While Fields' offseason progress has been encouraging, there's no substitute for live game action. The experience that comes when the bullets are flying is the greatest teacher for a young quarterback.
That's why Fields likely will get reps in all three of the Bears' preseason games. He played 18 snaps Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs and will get one or two series Thursday in Seattle.
That handful of reps might seem small, but they can be invaluable as the Bears look to mold Justin Fields into the star he's capable of becoming.
"That's experience. I mean, he's 23, right?" Getsy said when asked about the key to improving pocket presence. "You can only get that by playing. And practice is great, but it's not a game. That's why it's important that he gets a few reps each preseason game, just to get that under his belt. And then I think the more he plays this year, the better he's going to get that feeling.
"Pocket presence is not an easy thing to teach. But he's got the toughness and the guts to do it. When you're evaluating quarterbacks, that's one of the first things I'm looking for — somebody to have that willingness to stand in there, make your throw with your feet in the ground and get smacked in the jaw. He definitely has that."
The Bears' new staff has only spent a few months around Fields. They spent the offseason program deconstructing his rookie year tape so the second-year quarterback could use the summer to work on polishing and perfecting his rare talents to make them mesh perfectly with Getsy's offense.
Janocko, Getsy, and Eberflus have only seen 18 preseason snaps and 15 training camp practices from the presumed franchise quarterback.
Is that enough to show the Bears' staff he can handle the expectations of being a franchise savior? Absolutely.
"I think his drive, his mental makeup, what he wants out of his career, what he wants for this team, what he wants for this organization and this city, I think he cares about all of that," Janocko said. "Just seeing his daily preparation. When you go in there in the morning, he's in the meeting room. He usually beats me into the meeting room every morning and he's ready to go. He's prepared the night before. That's the proof you need to see from a player that has that drive to carry his team."
Building a better Justin Fields is a process. It will take countless hours, reps, and film sessions to complete. The Bears still are early in the undertaking. But Fields has already passed several checkpoints as he works to become the guy the Bears envision.
The journey still has many miles to go. There will undoubtedly be speed bumps. But he and the Bears are well on their way to building the best possible version of Justin Fields.
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