Former Chicago Bears Director of Player Personnel, Josh Lucas, appeared on a recent episode of Second City Gridiron and shared some interesting (and somewhat surprising) insight into Justin Fields' rookie season.
The Bears selected Fields with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and despite entering the league with immense upside, the plan outlined by then-coach Matt Nagy was for veteran Andy Dalton to begin the year as the starter while Fields adapts to life as a pro.
Seems reasonable, right?
According to Lucas, Fields didn't handle it as well as we've all been led to believe.
Check it out:
Should Bears keep Fields and draft Caleb? Josh Lucas says it didn't work well with Fields and Dalton/Foles.
— Bill Zimmerman (@BillTZimmerman) February 15, 2024
"Justin wasn't great his rookie year, we thought having two vets with him would really help him and that was not cohesive at all."
Full interview: https://t.co/Pk8RkcMUzh pic.twitter.com/dbIwlHZWHS
You can listen to the full interview here.
Lucas did condition his statements by saying he, in a way, liked Fields' competitive edge. He knew he was the best quarterback in the room and should be on the field. Makes sense.
"The part you don't like about it is, there's a teachable moment in every point in practice," Lucas said. "There's teachable moments in the building during the day with how you carry yourself as a quarterback. There's teachable moments in press conferences. There's teachable moments every snap on Sunday.
"When you've got two guys who've won as much as Nick and seen as much as Andy, and you don't take that information in because you're a little standoff-ish and a little abrasive, you're wasting that opportunity."
Yikes.
This is the first time I can recall a 'negative' story about Justin Fields' personality. Until now, all we've heard is how great of a leader and how hard of a worker Fields is. Of course, all of that is true. And maybe his assimilation into the NFL required a bit of humble pie before he took the reigns as the Chicago Bears' starting quarterback.
But if there's anything to learn from this intel, it's this: There's absolutely no way the Bears can have Fields and Caleb Williams on the roster at the same time. Fields won't be a mentor for a guy who was drafted to take his job. Instead, he could revert to the "abrasive" and "standoff-ish" persona he exuded as a rookie. It would be a complete and total disaster.
If you're one of those people (like me, admittedly) who think there's a reality in which Ryan Poles can have his cake and eat it, too (keep Fields and draft Williams), that pipe dream is over. And it was never a realistic idea to begin with.
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