Report: Former Chicago Bears Coach Trashes Justin Fields

The Bears moved on from Fields this offseason when they traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional sixth-round pick. The Bears went on to draft Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick.

While Bears fans should be excited about having Williams to cheer for, many in Chicago were upset when general manager Ryan Poles pulled the plug on the Fields experiment. Recent reports have surfaced about Fields’ time in Chicago, which paints a less rosy picture than the narrative his teammates and coaches fed the media last season.

Justin Fields had issues in the locker room

Fields had issues with teammates early in his career with the team. While players defended him in front of cameras, Tyler Dunne with Go Long is reporting that Fields’ relationships in the locker room were “surface level.” Basically, players said nice things about Fields in the media because they wanted to act professionally.

Fields’ former coaches have gripes with H1M

Coaches also had issues with Fields. At the beginning of last season, Fields blamed “coaching” for his robotic play. Per Dunne, a former Bears coach said Fields’ play wasn’t sustainable:

Fields ran for 1,000+ yards in Year 2 but, as one ex-Bears coach observed, he was more “chicken with his head cut off.” This was never sustainable.

Some analysts have blamed former Bears head coach Matt Nagy for ruining Fields by starting him in the league too early during his rookie season. Per Dunne, former coaches who have worked with Fields think it wouldn’t have mattered because of the mental aspect of his game:

Fundamentals can improve. That’s physical.

Processing is a different animal. Processing is more ingrained.

This is why both coaches and personnel agree that a redshirt year would not have changed much.

“When you watch him, watch his eyes,” says one of Fields’ former coaches. “He tries to see the whole thing and doesn’t see anything. His eyes are all over the place and it’s just really hard to watch. It’s just bad football.”

Those are rough comments from ex-coaches to have on the resume. But those problems are well known in the NFL world, as opposing defenses purposely call zone defense against him to shut down any passing attack.

The Steelers will now be tasked with trying to fix Fields. Fields will sit behind veteran Russell Wilson to start the season as he attempts to resurrect his NFL career.

The Steelers do have one option for Fields to use his decapitated-fowl-like abilities: He could be asked to return kicks in Pittsburgh.