The Bears watched Justin Fields come close to setting an NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback last season, but they didn’t see all they want to see from their 2021 first-round pick.
Fields averaged just 149.5 passing yards per game, which ranked him above only Cooper Rush among the 34 quarterbacks who started five games last season. Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said on Wednesday that the Bears don’t want to take away the threat that Fields brings by running the ball and extending plays, but made it clear that the team needs to see more balance in his production in the future.
“It’s got to be a part of who you are, [but] in the NFL, it’s hard for it to be who you are — you just don’t last,” Getsy said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s got to be a part of us and he’s really, really good at it. He’s really good at a lot of things. So we’ve got to make sure we just tap into each one of those things, but [running], for sure, has to be a part of who we are going forward.”
Fields has things to work on as a passer if he’s going to improve and the Bears have to work on the rest of the offense to make sure the cast around him is a strong one, so there’s plenty for everyone to do in Chicago this offseason.
