The quarterback position has been a detriment to the Chicago Bears for the better part of a few decades. The Bears are hoping that rookie Justin Fields changes that narrative.
Fields continues to impress during the offseason program, which continued during Wednesday’s OTA practice. Despite some hiccups with quarterback-center exchanges, Fields once again showed impressive growth.
One of Fields’ strengths is his deep-ball accuracy, something that Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles struggled with last season. It’s one of the reasons the Bears traded up for Fields with the 11th overall pick. And it’s something that has left coach Matt Nagy in awe.
“(Fields) has that mentality of rip your heart out,” Nagy told reporters Wednesday. “And so there were a couple of plays in there — and not just (Wednesday) but other days — where these quarterbacks are staying aggressive.”
Fields had a few beautiful deep balls during Wednesday’s practice, including a beauty of a bomb to wide receiver Damiere Byrd for a touchdown that left Nagy singing Fields’ praises.
“We talk about ‘air time,’” Nagy said. “‘Air time’ meaning when the wide receiver looks like he’s covered to everybody in the stadium — but when that ball touches the top of the stadium and starts coming down, the wide receiver separates. And that’s what happened on that ball. And [Byrd] made a hell of a catch.”
If there’s someone who looks to benefit most from Fields’ deep-ball accuracy it’s wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who clocked a 4.38 40-time and is someone who got open deep several times to no avail.
In fact, Fields’ first deep ball to Mooney left the second-year wideout smiling mid-route.
“It’s a beautiful ball, man,” Mooney said. “He knows where he wants to put it, and it’s very accurate. And sometimes it can get there at the right [time], but he wants it out in front of you, and he’ll give pressure to himself if it’s not there.”
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