Justin Fields will sit on Sunday when the Bears take on the Minnesota Vikings. His season is over.
Matt Eberflus announced on Wednesday that Fields came into Halas Hall on Monday with a sore hip, and after further testing they found he had suffered a hip strain. Based on that, Eberflus said Fields wouldn’t be able to go through the week at full speed. Ultimately the team decided to shut him down for Sunday.
Eberflus said the Bears’ circumstances didn’t play a role in the decision. The team is 3-13 with an opportunity to lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFL draft if the Bears lose and the Texans beat the Colts. He said if Sunday were a playoff game, Fields would still sit.
Fields went through ups and downs in his second season leading the Bears. It took four weeks for Fields to complete 10 passes in a game and five weeks for him to surpass 200 passing yards in a game. As he and Luke Getsy became more comfortable with each other the offense evolved and the Bears started taking advantage of Fields’ rushing ability more.
Soon, Fields began breaking records. In Week 9, Fields’ 178 rushing yards set a new NFL single-game record for quarterbacks. He also became the first QB in the history of the game to rush for 140+ yards and throw three or more touchdown passes. Fields’ longest run was a 61-yard touchdown, and that set a Bears QB record. One week later he became the first quarterback to ever run for over 100 yards, run for two touchdowns and pass for two touchdowns. Remember that 61-yard record-setting run? Fields topped it in Week 10, too, with a 67-yarder. In Week 13, Fields reeled off another long touchdown run. It wasn’t quite as long at 55 yards, but it was still notable. No other quarterback in NFL history had three touchdown runs of 50+ yards in a career. Fields had three in a month. In Week 17, Fields passed Michael Vick for second-most rushing yards in a season for a quarterback. He finished with 1,143 rushing yards, just 63 yards short of Lamar Jackson’s record.
The Bears finally seem to have their guy under center, but there’s still plenty for Fields and the Bears offense to prove. The team had multiple opportunities to win a game with a fourth-quarter comeback drive, but fell short over and over. That’s an area where Fields and the offense will look to improve next year.
Fields finished the year with 2,242 passing yards, 17 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a 60.4% completion rate. In addition to the 1,143 rushing yards he had eight rushing touchdowns.
