Matt Eberflus calls Justin Fields’ progression “special”

After early season struggles, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields has taken a major step forward. Head coach Matt Eberflus calls the progression special.

We’ve seen an incredible progression from Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields. He had some early season struggles leading a new offensive system. With those struggles, many people started to doubt that he was the franchise quarterback the team and its fans thought.

However, in the past month, Fields has been quieting those doubters. He has shown grit and his speed, athleticism, and football IQ is on full display.

The Chicago Bears are now calling more plays that utilize more of his skill set. There are more designed runs. Those runs are incredible. Opposing teams are keying in on that yet cannot stop him. Last week, against the Miami Dolphins, he ran 15 times for 178 yards and a touchdown. The rushing yards were the most by a quarterback in the regular season.

We’ve also seen more high-percentage passes from Fields. There are more curls and slants. Additionally, he is using the play action very well. It helps that the Chicago Bears have the NFL’s top rushing attack.

There are a lot of people around the league who give Fields rave reviews for his improvement. One of them is his own coach, Matt Eberflus.

Despite now losing five of the last six games, Eberflus and the Bears are happy with what is happening. They are at the beginning of a rebuild so they wanted to see development this season. They’ve gotten that and more from Fields.

After the loss to the Dolphins in Week 9, Eberflus spoke about Fields’ performance.

"It’s special. We are building our football team. We have a young football team. We are building upon that, and the centerpiece of that is the quarterback. That’s the way it is in the NFL. Talk about toughness and grit and the ability to persevere through a lot of different things. Obviously start of the season is feeling his way, and now the last three games he’s really taken off. We are excited about that as a group and we are excited about that for the Chicago Bears…"

What makes Fields’ performance incredible is that he is doing it without having much talent around him. General manager Ryan Poles received criticism for not being more aggressive in helping Fields. However, having to completely overhaul the roster, build up the biggest salary cap space in the league, and amass more draft picks made that impossible. Poles had to replace the players leaving with a lot of castoffs.

Because of that, there were many who didn’t expect to see much of anything from Fields. To see him improve the way he has in spite of the subpar talent surrounding him is impressive.

To show that the team is solidly behind him, general manager Ryan Poles did provide Fields some help. He used one of his precious draft picks, one of his two 2023 second-round picks, to acquire wide receiver Chase Claypool at the trade deadline. Claypool is a talented, big, and athletic receiver who is an upgrade in the wide receivers unit.

Yes, Justin Fields is still a work in progress. However, the future is bright with him leading the way. He is showing that he is the man to lead the rebuild. It will be even more exciting to see what he does when the new talent arrives next season.