Bill Lazor; The Plan To Develop Justin Fields

[G08]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I've fallen down a Ryan Day rabbit hole and one of my takeaways was how he develops and teaches an offense. 

“I will say this, and I believe in it with all my heart, if a quarterback hasn’t practiced a play over 100 times, you’re not going to get the production you want," Day told the audience in 2019. "You’re not going to get the execution that you need. It needs to be done in the offseason, it needs to be done in the summer, even if he’s running a concept against air without a defense, and we just put two receivers out there and we’re running those concepts over and over again, he’s going to feel it, he’s going to get good at it, and he’s gonna go."

Keep in mind, Nagy is pretty close with Ryan Day so I can understand why he (as of May 18th) is still emphasizing that Andy Dalton is our week 1 starter.

[AZBearsFan]

18 hours ago, JAF-N72EX said:

Throwing him out there before he's ready is not properly developing him either. It's only hindering him. And let's leave that decision up to the coaches, who know him better than any of us, to make that decision. 

This whole notion of "either he has it or he doesn't" is very wrong on so many different levels. It's such a vague statement with no context behind it whatsoever.

Not all systems are the same. Not all QBs are the same in how they digest said system. Not all QB's are the same in how they digest or interpret the different lingo associated with certain plays derived from said system.

 

I get your point here AZ, but I strongly disagree. I think you're downplaying the advantages of a player sitting and what they can gain from it. 

He can learn all of these things you mentioned without taking a single snap. This is what practice and preseason is for.  You don't think practicing against the likes of Mack, Hicks, Jackson, Roquan, DT, and JJ is not going to help him? Hell, even against the 2nd string can get help him.

There are a lot of important aspects of the game a QB can learn behind the scenes without him taking a single snap in a real game. How do you think alot of these current NFL QBs got to where they are now? Alot of them started out as red shirts and bench players in College and worked hard enough in practice to eventually earn the right to start in college, and worked even harder to become a 1st round pick.

As I've pointed out before, I'll let Rodgers himself explain it to you.

Aaron Rodgers explains benefits for developing a quarterback on the bench

But Rodgers explained the potential benefits of a gradual transition.

"There's a lot of growth that can happen sitting on the bench," he said. "You can really gain in confidence every single day of practice. You can come along at your own speed. You're obviously not dealing with the pressure every week of having to perform, which is a real thing. You come along and learn the league, learn how to be a professional and learn how to take care of your body."

Without wins and losses to measure his progress, Rodgers focused on completions.

"Work on my fundamentals," he said. "Work on my footwork; try and get my timing down. Try and put some of the plays that we were running of the other team's into our language, so you start to work on timing up drops with the receiver routes.

"And just going through your progressions. Putting together some of the fronts with the shell and the coverage and the pressures. Just trying to treat those like really important reps every day."

Trubisky has said he operates with similar daily principles and goals as he quarterbacks the Bears scout team. And he made a good impression on Rodgers during the preseason.

"He made a lot of plays, ran around, did some good things from what I saw," Rodgers said. "But mentally it takes a while to learn the offense and, more importantly, start to learn defenses. Obviously, the game is a little different preseason to regular season."

I agree with this in general, and you're absolutely right. Fields does give us the best opportunity to be successful in 2021 as a team.

We're in a weird transition right now. The defense is the only thing that has kept us afloat for the last 3 years, but that same defense is now aging and is going to need to be retooled in 2022.  So 2021 is our best shot at winning a title for now.

However, I don't care about 2021 at this point.  I'm thinking long-term.  Fields gives us the best chance at fixing a 60-year-old problem and I don't wanna see him getting ruined before he even has a chance. Even if that means we have to sacrifice the 2021 season in order to keep that from happening.

Let's keep it real here. The Bears media and fans, collectively, are one of (if not); the most impatient, harshest, most fickle, and most reactionary base in the league. ESPECIALLY when it comes to QBs. 

You're a smart person AZ, who I know understands the importance of QB confidence and what it can do to a player.  If Nagy and co decided to start Fields in week 1 (before he's ready) and he goes out there throws 3-4 INTS on the road, what do you think is gonna happen to his confidence (and development as a whole) moving forward?  Because I GUARANTEE he will get the Cutler comparison treatment and the media and fans will turn on him instantly.

And I know Fields has talked about the pressure from fans in interviews, and talked about how he's dealt with OHS fans and media all that.  And he's not wrong (I'm from Ohio and Ohio State Fans are brutal), but OHS is not even close to Bears media/fans when it comes to critiquing QBs in that regard. Let's make that clear.

I appreciate the kind words. I am a smart person. 🤷‍♂️😂

In all seriousness though the question then becomes, what makes him “ready”? That is going to be different in the eyes of everyone IMO. For me, it’s once he gives us the best chance to win. I’ve said since draft day that I don’t mind Fields sitting so long as the reason he’s sitting is because Dalton gives us a better chance to win that week and not because of some pre-draft promise to Dalton. Whoever starts it should be on their own merits and ability, and nothing other than that. That’s not specific to Fields for me either. I’d have said the same thing if we drafted Lance, Jones, Mond, etc. Dalton is an adequate if limited veteran option, so for Fields to get to that point for me will take more than just putting on his pads but not so much that he has to be an absolute world beater from day 1 either. Not everyone will see it the same way I do and that’s fine - we’re all entitled to feel how we do. Not every QB gets the same thing out of sitting as Rodgers did. Not every QB needs it, and not every QB who sits initially greatly benefits from it. Each QB should be looked at on his own merits. Some guys just have “it” right away. We’ll find out where Fields fits on that spectrum soon enough. 

I do disagree though with the notion that if Fields starts week 1 and throws 3-4 picks he’ll get the Cutler treatment. Cutler wasn’t a rookie - he was a 4th year pro sold to us as a pro bowler who still had huge upside who came in and threw 26 INT his first season here. Fields will be a rookie playing in his first NFL game. He’ll get at least as much rope as Mitch did from most people if need be IMO, which was at least to the end of year 2.

[G08]

4 hours ago, dll2000 said:

If you want to sit Fields because he isn't ready fine.

This is all that I'm saying when it comes to starting Fields.

If he demonstrates he can execute enough of the offense to put together a full game plan week 1, trot him out there.

 

I just don't know if that will be the case, necessarily.

[AZBearsFan]

20 minutes ago, G08 said:

This is all that I'm saying when it comes to starting Fields.

If he demonstrates he can execute enough of the offense to put together a full game plan week 1, trot him out there.

 

I just don't know if that will be the case, necessarily.

What is it that you think he won’t be ready to do by early September that would preclude them from putting in a full game plan for him? You could argue that the relative unknown of what Fields can do might actually benefit us against LA. What we can do with Dalton is probably not that different from what we can do with Foles, just (hopefully) with more effective and efficient operation. 

[WindyCity]

27 minutes ago, G08 said:

This is all that I'm saying when it comes to starting Fields.

If he demonstrates he can execute enough of the offense to put together a full game plan week 1, trot him out there.

 

I just don't know if that will be the case, necessarily.

I think by the end of the preseason it will be obvious to everyone.

This isn’t a fair fight. This is like a 737 being compared to a stealth bomber.

[WindyCity]

1 minute ago, AZBearsFan said:

What is it that you think he won’t be ready to do by early September that would preclude them from putting in a full game plan for him? You could argue that the relative unknown of what Fields can do might actually benefit us against LA. What we can do with Dalton is probably not that different from what we can do with Foles, just (hopefully) with more effective and efficient operation. 

I just don’t see what 4-6 weeks of scout team is going to do for him.

Scout team is literally useless for anything but technique development. 

[G08]

12 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

What is it that you think he won’t be ready to do by early September that would preclude them from putting in a full game plan for him? You could argue that the relative unknown of what Fields can do might actually benefit us against LA. What we can do with Dalton is probably not that different from what we can do with Foles, just (hopefully) with more effective and efficient operation. 

There is just a lot that goes into our offensive playbook and that's not even considering the complexities of NFL defenses. You need to get reps and get on the same page with your WRs, there are route conversions and adjustments that happen on the fly based on what the defense is doing post-snap, etc.

[G08]

12 minutes ago, WindyCity said:

This isn’t a fair fight. This is like a 737 being compared to a stealth bomber.

One player has 146 career NFL starts, the other has zero.

Let's pump the brakes a little bit here.

[JAF-N72EX]

58 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

I appreciate the kind words. I am a smart person. 🤷‍♂️😂

I hope you didn't take my compliment as sarcasm AZ, because I can assure you it wasn't? I only know you from this forum, but I've interacted with you on here for about the last 15 years or so and I know you are no dummy when it comes to football. That's what I meant by that. Or do I need to bring up the long DHB debate between us to remind you of all of this lol? 😉

I only ask because you followed up your comment with 'in all seriousness'. So I hope you didn't it take it the wrong way.

 

[JAF-N72EX]

At any rate, we all may agree to disagree about the who, what, where, why, and when Fields starts --and that's fine too. This forum would be boring if we all thought the same way and didn't have different viewpoints and opinions.

But I think we can all agree that Fields is an amazingly talented prospect with a high upside who gives us the best chance to finally put an end to this terrible run of QBs that dates back as far as WW2. So lets hope he lives up to his billing and goes on to have an impressive career.....regardless of when that time begins.

[AZBearsFan]

2 minutes ago, JAF-N72EX said:

I hope you didn't take my compliment as sarcasm AZ, because I can assure you it wasn't? I only know you from this forum, but I've interacted with you on here for about the last 15 years or so and I know you are no dummy when it comes to football. That's what I meant by that. Or do I need to bring up the long DHB debate between us to remind you of all of this lol? 😉

I only ask because you followed up your comment with 'in all seriousness'. So I hope you didn't it take it the wrong way.

 

Oh not at all taken as sarcasm. I was just being a smartass with my “I am a smart person” response. “In all seriousness” was my transition back to the actual discussion. Wrote my post while watching the White Sox piss away a 4-run lead to the Twins so I was in a snarky place lol.

And yes, I definitely remember the DHB debate. He was definitely the most polarizing player in that draft. 

[JAF-N72EX]

3 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

And yes, I definitely remember the DHB debate. He was definitely the most polarizing player in that draft. 

Yeah you won that one by a pretty large margin and it still hurts lol. I really had high hopes for the kid. I sound like the old man but god this forum was so much fun back then.

[dll2000]

By conventional logic or however you want to label it; Love got best possible training.  He sat for a year and learned by watching.  

He should be ready to step in and be the man.  

Seems to me by their actions GB thinks he isn’t near ready to play. 

They could have traded Rodgers pre draft for a Stafford deal.  

I am happy they didn’t.   I want them to keep Rodgers and I want him to hold out and sulk and cause problems.  

[JAF-N72EX]

1 hour ago, dll2000 said:

By conventional logic or however you want to label it; Love got best possible training.  He sat for a year and learned by watching.  

He should be ready to step in and be the man.  

How do you know that he isn't?

[WindyCity]

10 hours ago, G08 said:

One player has 146 career NFL starts, the other has zero.

Let's pump the brakes a little bit here.

The only thing that Andy Dalton has is experience.

The only way for Fields to get experience is to play.

The one thing Andy has... is the easiest thing for Justin to develop.