From the way the Bears cleared out the offensive coaching staff, the ousted coaches almost seemed to be made into scapegoats. It is true that the offence was not the best. On that side of the football, though, head coach Matt Eberflus continued to find reasons for optimism. Why did he feel the need to terminate nearly everyone if there were things to be proud of?
“Some things that I’m proud of this year in terms of just statistically, the rush offence continued to really shine, was fourth in the league the last eight games, so the back halfof the season, and then the interceptions,” Eberflus stated during the postseason news conference. “In the latter part of the season, there were less interceptions. It was truly enjoyable to witness.” Actually, they improved from 23rd to 18th place in scoring and were second in rushing a year after they were first. The passing attack went from last to 27th place, a minor shift.
It is obviously in need of improvement. Justin Fields deserves some recognition for following Matt Eberflus’ 2-0-0 advice, which calls for two touchdowns, zero interceptions, and zero sacks.
“That’s something we emphasised with Justin, that and the sack total,” Eberflus stated. “He did a really good job of doing that.” The quarterback position is the main focus. “We adore Justin’s current location,” Eberflus remarked. “His growth has been impressive. He is performing well in terms of interceptions, holding those down, and sack totals. He is maintaining his sights down the field to deliver some strikes there, and he will only get better as our football team progresses.”
In a season where their offence made minor progress but significant advancements were still required, these are the final grades for the offence and special teams. INTRODUCTION: C The question the Bears need to answer before the draft is whether Fields has simply plateaued in his development or hasn’t improved due to a lack of coaching.
Fields’ completion percentage increased from 60.4% to 61.4%, but his passer rating only went from 85.2 to 86.3. In fact, his yards per attempt fell to the level he had attained as a rookie—6.9. His proportion of touchdowns fell from a respectable 5.3% to 4.3%. When he brought in an outstanding receiver to the offence, all of this occurred. Fields’ season was cut short by a thumb injury, but following the injury, he shown improved turnover prevention skills, recording just three interceptions—two of which came on Hail Mary throws. Although his ten fumbles appear excessive, they are a career low. The thing that Fields most improved at was scanning the field for a target while moving rather than just sprinting.
However, this negated his significant scramble gains, and in 2022, after consistently overwhelming defences as a runner, he only had three runs of more than 20 yards. Fields received praise from Eberflus for his “2-0-0,” but one of those stats was zero sacks. He typically didn’t even come close to succeeding at zero sacks. He bears the most of the blame rather than the offensive line. According to NextGen Stats, Fields held onto the ball for a league-low 3.22 seconds, which is longer than he did even as a rookie. His sack percentage was 10.6%. Tyson Bagent’s sack rate as a quarterback was 3.4%.
