NEWSLETTER
It is encouraging that Bears quarterback Justin Fields is healthy enough to practice (albeit with limitations) ahead of this week’s game against the Jets.
However, after hearing Fields discuss his injury, I would have no problems with the Bears slow-playing QB1’s return to the playing field:
A separated shoulder with some partially torn ligaments sounds like a gnarly thing to try to play through. And for what it’s worth, Fields said that the pain level was “pretty high” on Wednesday. But he also said that he was hoping the pain would go down by Sunday’s game day.
Fields would go on to say that if the Bears were playing today (they’re not, but hang with me here…) that he would *NOT* be able to play. He briefly discussed that he did throw some balls during the glorified walk-through practice, but also made note that the injury impacts him on his followthrough. Fields would go on to say the injury feels better now than it did after Sunday’s loss to the Falcons. That feels like a good sign. It was all part of a presser in which Fields was saying all the right things, but left me thinking that Fields shouldn’t play — especially if there are serious levels of pain he is feeling while working through the injury.
The Bears have some time to sort through the Fields injury. And while I understand that he’ll want to play, cooler heads need to prevail. In other words, if Fields can’t give it a full go at practice OR still feels as if the injury is still problematic when he goes through the motions, the team needs to sit him down. Don’t get me wrong. I love the passion. And I admire the gumption. To want to play for these Bears through that injury shows some guts. But there is no reason to do something that would further worsen the injury. We’ll see how the rest of the week shakes out.
For more from Fields, here is his Wednesday press conference:
