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Official 2025 NFL Discussion preseason edition!!!



Fields finished the season with modest passing numbers (2,242 yards, 17 TDs, 11 INTs) and outrageous rushing numbers (1,143 yards).
Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports

The play is one you wouldn’t notice, but, really, it looked so easy that it was exactly what Bears coach Matt Eberflus and his offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy, wanted to see.

It was third-and-10 against the vaunted Eagles, who’d won four straight, and after rookie tackle Braxton Jones had taken a false start to knock Chicago off schedule on the game’s third play from scrimmage. The ball was snapped to Justin Fields in the shotgun. Fields took a short drop, hit his plant foot and spun one on time to receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, over the middle, and St. Brown turned upfield for a 20-yard gain.

“He did a great job of just dropping back, hitting his back foot and hitting EQ on an in-cut,” said Eberflus from his office Saturday. “It was a beautiful pass to keep the drive alive. Obviously, we’ve done a really good job of scoring on first drives—we’re like tops in the league at scoring on our first drives of the game. And that was a big play for him. You can certainly see the growth in him. The rhythm and timing of that play was awesome.”

The overriding message of the play? This is going to get easier for Fields. And when it does, look out.

The Bears had shut Fields down for Week 18, thanks to a sore hip, but they did so with a new coach and GM having learned a lot about their 23-year-old quarterback. He finished the season with modest passing numbers (2,242 yards, 17 TDs, 11 INTs), outrageous rushing numbers (1,143 yards), with a lot of room to grow, and a lot of questions to answer. So I figured with Fields’s season complete, this’d be a good chance to get a status check on the former Buckeye.

Here’s a bit of my Saturday morning conversation with Eberflus on his young quarterback.

MMQB: So can we look back at your starting point with Justin?

ME: We started the year off—everybody had a fresh start. And then, really, with Justin, it was a point of Let’s bring him in; let’s figure out what his mental aptitude is. Is he sharp? Is he crisp? Can he rip the calls? Can he remember the concepts and all that? Because you really don’t know until you start working with the guy. He checked all those boxes. He’s so smart. He’s able to understand concepts, understand protections, move the protection around to make sure he’s squared away. And so that part of it is, the mental side of it, was great.

And then the physical side of it, again, you watch tape—Luke and I watched tape on him, and obviously we asked a lot of our friends about him that have either evaluated him coming out of college or just have worked with him in the past at Ohio State, just to get a feel for the guy and a feel for his skill set. And once we got a handle on that, then you’re able to really work at his fundamental craft of playing quarterback.

And what was that? And that really was, for him, being in balance, throwing from a good platform and delivering the ball on time. And that’s the things that he’s improved most on this year and throughout the course of the year.

MMQB: Did you have to balance leveraging Justin’s ability with managing the hits he took?

ME: No doubt. And I think it’s the style and the types of runs that you use with him, too. I think it’s important to have all those things dialed in, because you obviously want to make sure that he’s working toward the sidelines and he’s getting out of bounds and not taking any unwanted hits. So we want to make sure that we do that and keep him out of harm’s way, and for the most part, he did that. He’s still learning to do that, and again, how many times you do it, when, is very important. We want to do it in the critical situations where it’s third down or two-minute or red-zone-type plays. Certainly, he’s got some unscripted ones where he just will do his thing—which obviously is where there were some historic things that he did this year. But yeah, you just gotta be smart about how you do it.

MMQB: Your wow moment with him this year?

ME: It was third down, and we were playing Detroit for the first time at Soldier Field. And he scrambled to the right and scrambled to the left and made about four guys miss, and then he just … just an insane run that he had to score that touchdown. But there’s been some amazing ones. There’ve been so many of them where I’ll walk down and talk to Luke, and we just look at each other like and say, Wow. That’s all we say. There’s a lot of those Wow moments for sure.

MMQB: So where do you see his potential as a passer?

ME: It’s very high. His potential is very high. What he does well is he throws outside the numbers really well and he also throws the go-ball and deep passes well. I mean, he’s very accurate on a deep pass. You can see that through the course of the year. He dropped one in to [Darnell] Mooney back at the New York Giants. He’s hit a lot of go-balls and outside-the-number passes, where he’s developing the inside-breaking routes and the rhythm and timing of that, and the intermediate pass. And that’s where he’s developing. He’s gotten a lot better, and he’s gonna continue to get better. To me, the ceiling on that is as high as we’re gonna take it. You never put a ceiling on a player. You never put a cap on a player, and he’s gonna take it where he can.

MMQB: And along those lines, I’d guess putting his body on the line has helped accelerate his growth as a leader, just with the respect he’ll get for it?

ME: There’s no doubt. And he’s got so much grit and so much toughness and loves the game. So that’s the first thing that we talk about with all the players—does he love football and show it every day? And he does that. Every day in practice. Every game he plays in. And, man, he is as tough as there is. People follow that. People follow the example he sets, and as he’s gotten more success during the course of the year, he’s certainly opened up and started to lead with his words as well.

***

Eberflus and I finished up on this story I’d heard on Fields from the offseason, where the coaches gave the players the week off. Not only did Fields come in that week, but he gathered trainers and weight-room staff to play receiver for him so he could throw at the facility. The Bears’ coach confirmed it.

“He pulled all the trainers out and the equipment guys out, and he’s out there,” Eberflus says. “I don’t think it was that warm out that day, either. It was pretty chilly, and he’s out here ripping routes to them. It was pretty cool to see. He’s done that a couple times, but he’s always working. Like after practice, every practice, he’s out there for 45 minutes and all the receivers are out there, tight ends are out there and they’re all running routes and working on the passing game. So he works very, very hard at it.”

Which, it would seem, is another really important piece of a puzzle that is just now starting to come together.
Click to expand...
 
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Lou_Kayge said:
Super-qualified as fuck, though. :angry:
Click to expand...


Caldwell went on to name a few candidates he'd like to see get head coaching interviews:

  • Leslie Frazier - Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator
  • Demeco Ryans - San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator
  • Teryl Austin - Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator
  • Eric Bieniemy - Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator
Those were just a few.
 
darth frosty said:


Caldwell went on to name a few candidates he'd like to see get head coaching interviews:

  • Leslie Frazier - Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator
  • Demeco Ryans - San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator
  • Teryl Austin - Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator
  • Eric Bieniemy - Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator
Those were just a few.
Click to expand...


Jim's record as an HC is light years better than Frazier's. Though having Peyton Manning helps.
 
MemphisNigga said:
Nah he's black....that's the only reason I can come up with. That was the last time they went to the playoffs.

It's the coach Tony Dungy effect ....build the team and let the white coaches get the jewelry.
Click to expand...
Agreed because he black, but IMO age is a factor which is why he spotlighted the younger black coaches who deserve a shot.



'It's the coach Tony Dungy effect ....build the team and let the white coaches get the jewelry.'

This of course triggered tha fuck outta me cause he had the lions in a place we had not been this fucking century.

Of course right as we were ready to take that next leap under his LEADERSHIP AND COACHING BITCH ASS QUINN HAD TO BRING IN HIS FAT USELESS ASS BOY PATRICIA??!?!

:angry: :curse: :mad:
 
darth frosty said:
Agreed because he black, but IMO age is a factor which is why he spotlighted the younger black coaches who deserve a shot.



'It's the coach Tony Dungy effect ....build the team and let the white coaches get the jewelry.'

This of course triggered tha fuck outta me cause he had the lions in a place we had not been this fucking century.

Of course right as we were ready to take that next leap under his LEADERSHIP AND COACHING BITCH ASS QUINN HAD TO BRING IN HIS FAT USELESS ASS BOY PATRICIA??!?!

:angry: :curse: :mad:
Click to expand...
Exactly!! If Patricia would have won, they'll still be giving him praises today. He's from the Belichick lineage...It's crazy how they throw these sorry ass white coaches the alley-oop.
 
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