The Chicago Bears are 2-1 to start the 2022 season. They are, simultaneously, in no position to be taken serious as a playoff contender.
Even in a weak NFC, the Bears have lacked the consistency needed to threaten for supremacy. A useful defense had been forced to take the field nearly 36 minutes per game over the first two weeks. Through three games, Chicago has attempted 55 total passes. The New York Giants, who rank 30th in passing offense this fall, had 55 in their first two games alone.
The easy conclusion would be that the Justin Fields experiment isn’t going as planned. But that’s not true; this is all by design for the Chicago Bears.
A stupid, hopeless design.
The Bears were always primed to limp through the 2022 campaign en route to a boatload of salary cap space in 2023. Only two teams in the league have even half their estimated $115 million in spending room, per Over The Cap.
This came after a 2022 offseason in which Chicago had little cap space, even after losing Allen Robinson in free agency. The team’s big ticket open market addition was defensive tackle Justin Jones,
That left a roster with plenty of holes to fill and few ways to do so reliably. When an early run on offensive linemen and wide receivers kicked off an NFL Draft in which the Bears had already traded away their first round pick, the club opted to buttress their defense instead of building around Fields.
The end result is an offense where a 17-pass day feels like a radical experiment. Fields is mostly surrounded by replacement-level pass catchers and an offensive line that’s allowed him to be sacked 10 times in three games. This makes Chicago an easy team to gameplan against — so much so that when WR1 Darnell Mooney had a five-yard catch in the first half it more than doubled his receiving yards for the season to date (he finished with two receptions for 23 yards).
There’s very little downfield separation in the Chicago passing game. This is how, after two quarters of play, Fields had gained more yards scrambling out of trouble on his passing downs than he had actually throwing the ball:
The problem isn’t just that Chicago lacks the personnel to let him thrive; its coaching staff is actively taking his hands off the wheel. When Fields faced third-and-nine from his own 36 on the game’s opening drive, he escaped pressure for a 29-yard gain that pushed the Bears into field goal range. Three plays later he faced third-and-10 … and head coach Matt Eberflus’ plan was to take Fields out of the equation with a draw play.
3rd and 9, 3 plays ago: Justin Fields drops back, avoids pressure, gains 29 yards
3rd and 10, now: Bears run … a halfback draw??? then kick a field goal
cool, cool. pic.twitter.com/Xe1oLqzFFx
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 25, 2022
Granted, there are times where laying off the gas makes sense. Fields is a work in progress. He makes bad throws.
Call him Jalen P𝗜𝗡𝗧re
📺 » @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/xo1Oz6L0XP
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) September 25, 2022
He also has so little help it’s tough to know what he’s actually capable of. On Sunday, he was brutal; eight of 17 for 106 yards, two interceptions and a 27.7 passer rating. His work in the intermediate range — 10-19 yards downfield — was solid. His work deep had a 100 percent turnover rate.
Two factors bailed him out. First, Khalil Herbert came in to replace an injured David Montgomery and completely ruled. He had 157 rushing yards and two touchdowns and got the ball on 35 percent of Chicago’s offensive snaps.
The second was Davis Mills, who was nearly as bad as Fields despite a better supporting cast.
Here’s how Mills reacted with the game on the line:
Roquan. Freaking. Smith.
📺: #HOUvsCHI on CBS pic.twitter.com/NoH07y6bF1
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 25, 2022
Sigh. Yeah.
So the Bears are 2-1. One of those games came in the midst of a three-hour downpour in Chicago. The other saw a toss-up against arguably the worst team in the NFL ultimately decided by an underhand softball lob to the opposing defense.
But that’s all part of the plan for the Bears, who never meant to contend in 2022. And if that’s the case, well, why not take the governor off Fields and let him cook? It’ll be more fulfilling than running the ball on third-and-long … at least for a while.
