Justin Fields’ lack of development may be partially his fault claims a former Bears executive
The debate of the Bears’ offseason is, do they stick with Justin Fields or draft Caleb Williams? Everyone from former players and executives to general managers around the NFL have all picked a side. The debate will continue until Ryan Poles makes the call on draft day in April.
Host of Bears Banter and deputy editor of Windy City Gridiron, Bill Zimmerman interviewed former Bears executive Josh Lucas on Thursday.
In the interview, Lucas discusses the Bears’ approach to NFL free agency and the draft. He also gives his take on the Bears QB situation. Lucas also talks about his time with the Bears during Justin Fields’ rookie season. Lucas claims that the reason why Fields didn’t develop as much as everyone hoped, was due to some of Fields’ personality traits.
Josh Lucas was the Bears’ director of player personnel from 2015 to 2021. He was part of the Bears decision makers when the team decided to draft Justin Fields in 2021.
Josh Lucas explains the Bears quarterback situation
All of the quotes below were taken from Thursday’s episode of Bears Banter with Bill Zimmerman. The full video will be embedded at the end.
“The NFL is flat out showing us its unbelievably beneficial to sit. From Love in Green Bay, Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady. Its extremely beneficial for a quarterback to be able to sit.” – Josh Lucas
Lucas goes on to suggest that there is a benefit to drafting Williams and keeping Justin Fields.
“You would have a chance for Justin to perform even better and give you even more leverage in a trade going forward.” – Josh Lucas
Lucas continues by mentioning the fact that the Bears players seem to all have Justin Fields back. He then says drafting Fields replacement could cause ripples in the locker room.
“It’s not crazy to think out, but, if you think that it could combust, if you think that the people in the locker room love Justin so much, which that might be true because Justin is a very likeable guy. And they are going to kind of shun off Caleb, you just never know.” – Josh Lucas
Josh Lucas claims Justin Fields is partially to blame for his own lack of development
Next, Lucas brings up Fields rookie season. In this section Lucas seems to suggest that Fields wasn’t interested in pointers or help from the Bears veteran quarterbacks.
“Justin wasn’t great his rookie year we thought having to vets with him would really help him, with Andy (Dalton) and Nick (Foles), and that was not cohesive at all.
The part that I kind of liked about it was that Justin knows he’s the best and he should be out there. But the part that you don’t like about it is there is a teachable moment in every point of practice there is teachable moments in the building during the day, how you carry yourself as a quarterback, there is teachable moments at press conferences, there is teachable moments every snap on Sunday.” Josh Lucas
“And when you’ve got two guys that have won as much as Nick and seen as much as Andy and you don’t take that information in because you are a little standoffish and a little abrasive you are wasting that opportunity.” – Josh Lucas
Lucas then provides his final thoughts on the subject, saying that the Bears could choose to keep Justin Fields and draft then sit Caleb Williams for a season.
“It would be risky from a team dynamic standpoint, but if you think it out, let Caleb sit for a year and you still continue to build your team and you get another year of Justin on a cheap deal, it’s not the craziest thing.” – Josh Lucas
Lucas is right, that would not be the “craziest,” thing. The Bears have seen the Packers sit two rookie quarterbacks for 3 years and have them develop into franchise QBs.
Overall, Lucas makes some good points about potentially drafting Caleb Williams and sitting him behind Justin Fields for one season. Lucas’ comments on Justin Fields character should be taken with a grain of salt. This is because there is evidence of Justin fields maturing since his rookie season and learning from some of those early career moments. And Lucas’ comments could also be used as a lesson when looking at Caleb Williams. Yes, there might be character concerns early on in his career if the Bears draft him, but things can change. People can change and mature over time.
The NFL draft quickly approaches and the Bears true intentions are still as murky as ever. The future of the Bears quarterback position won’t be fully ironed out until draft day. The future of the NFL in Chicago is in Ryan Poles hands, he has proven to be a good GM with his moves thus far. Whatever he decides to do as the Bears march into 2024 should be fun to watch.
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