How Matt Eberflus plans to develop Justin Fields

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New Bears head coach Matt Eberflus may be a defensive mind, but he made it clear in his introductory press conference that he had a vision for the team’s offense, and he would help on that side of the ball. Now, we’re finding out that Eberflus wasted no time at all to get to work with Justin Fields.

According to Albert Breer, on Eberflus’ first day as Bears head coach, he met with Fields and the two spoke for 90 minutes. Among the topics of discussion were Eberflus’ plan to help Fields become as efficient as possible, along with his plan to build an offense around the young QB.

“I just see a guy that’s ready to develop. He’s so ready to develop and wants to be (a) sponge,” said Eberflus in Breer’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” column. “We’ve talked about giving him an education on the defensive side in terms of coverages as well as the offensive side in terms of schemes. He’s ready to develop and excited to get going. Certainly, he has the skill set to move the ball with his legs, and we’re also looking at the concept of him being able to get the ball out of his hands, take what the defense gives you, and not only the underneath throws, but also the deep throw.”

Last season, Fields ranked tied for the sixth-slowest release in the NFL at 2.91 seconds, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Some of that can be explained by his ability to extend the play, but in other cases one can see that Fields has opportunities to throw the ball sooner.

Eberflus has already detailed that he would like the Bears offense to be filled with explosively athletic players, as well.

“If you want to score points, you have to get chunk plays and big plays,” Eberflus said last month. “That's how you score.

“We will play at a high tempo, a high effort, attacking, physical style, built upon speed, quickness and explosive athletic ability. We will carry ourselves with an attitude of energy, passion and intensity. We will play with maximum effort on every play.”

Sounds like Fields is just the man for the job.

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