Justin Fields showed enough in his debut to prove he’s the future of the Chicago Bears, NY Giants owner John Mara advocates for full vaccination in the NFL, and much more inside this week’s Between The Hash Marks.
The Chicago Bears got a glimpse of their future Saturday, and that future should be now for Justin Fields.
“He definitely should play Week 1,” an NFC personnel executive tells FanSided, on the condition of anonymity to discuss Fields freely.
Fields, primarily going against the Miami Dolphins’ second-string defense, put on a show in front of the championship-starved faithful at Solder Field.
The No. 11 pick in the NFL Draft, who the Bears traded a 2022 first-round pick and 2021 fifth-round to the Giants to acquire, completed 14-of-20 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, while adding 33 rushing yards, including an eight-yard touchdown scamper.
“He’s a damn good football player,” the executive says. “He’s in a better situation than Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson. He went to Georgia, he went to Ohio State, he played a lot of football, won a lot of games, physically and mentally, this is a good kid. He’s going to be a good player. He’ll be damn good.”
Fields’ football education came at the knee of Kirby Smart for 12 games at Georgia, and a two-season masterclass spent playing for Ryan Day at Ohio State, where the duo won 20 games and a National Championship together.
It’s little wonder, then, that enthusiasm for Fields is running high within Halas Hall.
“This is a kid who is a really, really fast learner,” a Bears source tells FanSided. “He’s a big and fast guy with arm talent. The best part is, he’s getting better every day.”
Against the Dolphins, Fields showed plenty of patience in the pocket, and quick decisiveness whether to get rid of the football when his receivers were unable to break open, or tuck it and run, as he did on his rushing touchdown.
Unlike Fields’ fellow rookie passers, Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, the Bears have a true No. 1 wide receiver in Allen Robinson, a defense that finished the 2020 campaign ranked 11th in the league in total defense, and a ground attack that averaged nearly 103 yards per game.
“The situation around him is excellent,” the executive says. “He has a pretty good running game. He has a great defense. He’s in a really good situation, and the thing is, he isn’t forced to start right away.”
After winning eight games each of the past two seasons, and making the postseason only twice since 2010, Bears general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy could be on the precipice of a win-or-go-home season.
It seems as if it is a matter of when, rather than if, Chicago’s braintrust hitches their future to Fields.
“This kid definitely can play Week 1, but I don’t think Nagy will do it,” the executive predicts. “He was in Kansas City when the Chiefs sat Patrick Mahomes for a year behind Alex Smith, and I’m sure seeing that they have a veteran; a really smart guy in Andy Dalton, who is a team-first guy who will help lift Fields through any struggles, and watch tape with him … ”
Nagy, unlike his mentor Andy Reid, does not have the track record of success nor the patience of a fanbase or front office to allow the losses to mount before turning the keys to the franchise over to his upstart rookie quarterback. Even if Dalton has the experience and temperament to be just as able a mentor to Fields as Smith was to Mahomes.
“He honestly should start,” the executive says. “Personally, he’s the best answer for now and the future.”
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Quotable
“I prefer that everybody be vaccinated. I would’ve preferred that it would have been mandatory for players to get vaccinated, but the Players Association did not share that view, so we are where we are, which is not a bad spot to be in. We’re over 90 percent. Obviously, I’d like it to be 100 percent because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
– NY Giants owner John Mara
Mara’s NY Giants should be commended for significantly boosting the percentage of players who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and ensuring that every other employee in the organization has taken the jab.
The NFL is once again taking the lead on mitigating COVID-19, and several critical milestones have been crossed by the league this week.
While Mara strongly preferred that players be required to be vaccinated, the Atlanta Falcons this week became the first team to have every player vaccinated. A Herculean accomplishment by first-year head coach Arthur Smith, who presented his players with information and left the choice to them.
Credit to the Falcons for not falling into the trap of disinformation and misinformation that so many players across the league and so many in society have fallen victim to, which has become a major hurdle and key factor in 30 percent of Americans thus far refusing vaccinations.
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Raiders became the first franchise to require proof of vaccination for fans to enter Allegiant Stadium this fall.
Other teams across the league following suit will likely be dictated by the exponential spread of the Delta variant currently scorching through the country, local government mitigation measures, and the vaccines ultimately receiving full FDA approval, rather than Emergency Use Authorization.
Pfizer is expected to be granted full approval in the coming weeks, and when that milestone arrives, expect the Raiders to be trailblazers rather than lone wolves in making full vaccination a requirement for fans to attend games this season.
Final thought
Urban Meyer finally came to his senses.
Honestly, Tim Tebow gave the rookie NFL head coach little choice.
Following a disastrous preseason debut during an ill-advised experiment this spring and summer at tight end, it would seem Tebow has played his final NFL snap.
Saturday night against the Browns, Tebow badly whiffed on an open-field block on a completion deep downfield that quickly went viral. Later, it’s hard to figure what he was trying to do when asked to run-block in a goal-line situation.
Meyer needed to pull the plug on Tebow sooner rather than later, ending a circus-sideshow of his own creation.
By giving a player 11 years removed from one of the all-time great careers by a college quarterback, but who has always been a fringe NFL player, Meyer chose Tebow’s bid to revive his failed NFL career over what was best for the Jaguars during his maiden offseason.
If Meyer truly valued Tebow’s presence, work ethic, and leadership, all of which he saw first-hand during their 48-7 run together at the University of Florida, he could have easily made his former quarterback a quality control assistant or offensive assistant coach, and maybe the Jaguars would have been better for it.
But, Tebow’s presence on the Jaguars’ roster this offseason was a spot occupied by a player who had no business playing in the NFL in 2021.
Tebow took up a spot in a tight end room that could have been occupied by a young player trying to launch his career, or a competent veteran such as the Eagles’ Zach Ertz or Giants’ Evan Engram — among others — who would be ideal trade fits for a franchise trying to build around a generational quarterback talent.
Players are smart enough to understand when coaches are making decisions in the best interest of the team, and competing for championships, and when one of their peers belongs … or doesn’t.
For Meyer, the Tebow conundrum came down to whether it was worth potentially losing his locker room before his Jaguars tenure even really began.
As we all saw Saturday night, Meyer made the right decision, even if it followed the wrong one, which was bringing Tebow into Jacksonville’s locker room in the first place.
Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL