NEWSLETTER
A quarterback’s job is never done.
And while Bears QB1 Justin Fields took some time out of his schedule to take in Super Bowl LVI in person, his offseason plans will soon take precedent. Naturally, he plans on involving his teammates, too:
#Bears quarterback Justin Fields told @TaylorBisciotti on the NFL's Instagram Live that he plans to get some of his teammates down to Georgia so they can train with him throughout the week.
— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) February 11, 2022
In an interview on the Friday before the Super Bowl, Fields told NFL media reporter Taylor Biscotti that he was planning to set up time to work out and train with teammates in the offseason. Of course, this isn’t the first time Fields has been gathering the troops for workouts. If you’ll recall, Darnell Mooney told reporters that he and Fields were already making plans to workout together immediately after the end of the regular season:
https://twitter.com/BN_Bears/status/1480291874162319362
Team work makes the dream work, baby!
Now, to be perfectly clear, Fields rounding up the troops isn’t unique. In fact, this feels par for the course for quarterbacks around the league. Everyone is doing it these days. Even still … this small gesture is something that still resonates with me. This is what accountability looks like. Moreover, it is what it looks like when the quarterback takes ownership of a situation and takes his first steps into becoming a leader. That was a tough step to make for Fields as a rookie who was between two veterans on the depth chart. One year later, that Fields is angling to get the gang together for workouts is commendable. Especially after last season, one which was clear that a lack of workout time with teammates went a long way toward explaining why things were seemingly off be tween the quarterback and his receivers.
Remember when Allen Robinson II was noting how the lack of time together was a contributing factor keeping he and Fields from being on the same page? That was a thing. An avoidable thing, too. All the Bears had to do was give Fields a little more than the bare minimum of first-team reps during training camp. Ah, well. That’s water under the bridge, now.
This is an important offseason for Fields. It’ll be his first full offseason as an NFL player. In other words, instead of dealing with the pre-draft process and all that comes with it, Fields has a full allotment of time to hone his craft. He can dig into his new playbook, take care of his body, work on becoming a more efficient thrower, find balance in his game, and other things of that nature. And that he’ll have teammates ready to help him along the way and workout to better themselves is an additional bonus.
