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The teen boy was near the sidewalk about 4:50 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Lawndale Avenue when he was struck by gunfire.
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Sep 12, 2021, 6:10pm CDT
Teen boy, 16, shot in Humboldt ParkSun-Times Wireon September 12, 2021 at 11:10 pm Read More »
Caroline Polachek performs at the Green Stage at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Sunday’s performers at the West Loop fest include Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus and Cat Power.
The hot weather continued Sunday but the crowd was noticeably more sparse on the final day of the Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 in Union Park.
A lineup including Caroline Polachek, Thundercat, Yves Tumor, Danny Brown, Andy Shauf, Flying Lotus and Cat Power led up to the headlining set by the unpredictable neo-soul singer-songwriter Erykah Badu.
Hot on the heels of Lollapalooza last month, the music festival has strict COVID-19 safety protocols in place, requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative test within 24 hours for each day of the fest in order to gain entry.
In addition to the music, a popup art fair featuring the work of local artists makes for perfect summertime shopping and browsing.
Here are some images from Pitchfork’s final hours on Sunday:
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Caroline Polachek performs at the Green Stage at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Festivalgoers cheer as Caroline Polachek performs at the Green Stage at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Festivalgoers lounge and walk around the field near the Green Stage at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. Read More
NBAE via Getty Images
The Sky came within three but never led the Mystics after the first quarter. This loss puts the team back at .500 (15-15) on the season.
The Mystics came into Wintrust Arena Sunday still fighting for a playoff spot while the Sky are fighting to hold on to the No. 6 seed.
As coach and general manager James Wade critically pointed out after the team’s 79-71 loss to the Mystics Sunday, they can’t move up in the standings but they can certainly move down.
“Nobody looks at our team and thinks ‘Oh, I want to be like the Sky,'” Wade said.
Coming off an important, playoff-clinching win against the Las Vegas Aces last week, Sunday’s game should have been a tuneup for the Sky. Instead, they went down early to the Mystics after allowing them to go on an 11-0 run to end the first quarter and spent the rest of the game fighting their way back.
Turnovers, poor shooting and defending the three-point line were all points of issue Sunday. The Sky came within three but never led the Mystics after the first quarter. This loss puts the team back at .500 (15-15) on the season.
Wade expressed extreme displeasure with the starting five as energy was once again an issue for the Sky. He combatted that by switching things up with eight minutes left in the third quarter putting Dana Evans, Lexie Brown, Diamond DeShields, Ruthy Hebard and Stefanie Dolson on the court together.
His only regret was not leaving them on the floor. Evans finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting but only played eight minutes.
“We didn’t have many players that showed up tonight,” Wade said. “The bench came in and gave us a boost. They earned the right to finish it off and I should have stayed with them.”
Kahleah Copper was a nonfactor Sunday afternoon with three points. Candace Parker, Allie Quigley and Azura Stevens all finished scoring in double figures. The Sky made their first three of the game in the third quarter and finished the game shooting 13.6% from behind the arc.
Last time these two teams faced each other Tina Charles went off for 34 points and 17 rebounds. She sent the game to overtime and an eventual win grabbing a late rebound for a putback at the end of regulation. Wade said ahead of the game his team had to beat her to spots, crowd her space and take away her rhythm. They didn’t do any of that.
“Taking away some of her patent moves [was an issue],” Stevens said. “Clogging up her space more. We’ve seen other teams do that and they were successful. We could have done a better job at that.”
Charles had 31 points and 10 rebounds Sunday and shot 50% from three.
The race for the the No. 8 seed is tight between the Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty. While the Sky have clinched a playoff spot, if the Wings win their final two games of the season and the Sky lose theirs it would put them in a two-way tie. The tiebreaking procedure would put the team with the better record in head-to-head matchups at the No. 6 seed, which is Dallas.
The Sky close out the regular season at home against the Aces and the Indiana Fever.
“It’s more of an internal thing [right now],” Dolson said. “We all have to have a bit more pride. We know how to play basketball but every team, every player in this league knows how to play basketball.”
Even though he couldn’t be at Wrigley Field managing the Cubs for the past nine days, manager David Ross kept close tabs on his team.
Ross watched every game with a binder of information that he likes to keep close by and would send texts to his coaches about things he was noticing. The chance to watch the games on television instead of from the dugout helped Ross to see the games a little differently.
“It was just a different perspective,” he said. “The main thing for me was seeing how pitches were coming out of guys’ hands, seeing the at-bats, seeing how other teams attacked our hitters. TV gives you such a different dynamic, and I hadn’t seen that in a while. It was good to be able to have that different perspective.”
It was tough not being able to be around his players, Ross said, because it’s much harder to read things like their body language watching from home.
That meant Ross had to spend a lot more time communicating with his coaches to see where different players were mentally as they scuffled. Patrick Wisdom, for instance, has not homered since August 28 and is in the midst of a .091 stretch at the plate. On Sunday, Ross went with Matt Duffy at third base.
Generally, the time away from the team was a reminder for Ross of how much he enjoys what he does.
“I think it’s clear I really like my job,” Ross said. “The ups and downs of it are what fuel you. I missed this passion, I missed these guys. Being part of a team, it feels good.”
Likes it so much that he watched his team and as well as the rest of the league, looking for ideas to improve his club. Most nights, Ross was sending clips of plays from other games to send to his coaching staff to show the players.
“I watched so much dang baseball I was grabbing stuff from other teams and other games that I would send to Andy (Green),” Ross said.
Ross was thankful not to experience any symptoms from COVID-19, other than boredom.
“Just counting down the days,” he said. “I never really felt bad at all. Thank goodness for college football.”
Nico rehabbing
Nico Hoerner (oblique) started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa Sunday. He played five innings at shortstop Sunday and went 0-for-2 with a pair of groundouts.
The I-Cubs have an off day Monday, and Hoerner is expected to stay on his rehab assignment through at least Wednesday. The team will assess how he is feeling physically and whether Hoerner is ready to rejoin the big league club later in the week.
Hoerner has been on the I.L. since July 29.
(Still) home sweet home
Despite the losing season and being swept over the weekend by San Francisco, the Cubs have a winning record (39-36) at Wrigley Field this year.
The Cubs play six more games at home this season, and if they were to drop four of those, 2021 would be the first time they’ve had a losing record at Wrigley since going 31-50 at home in 2013.
A 16-year-old boy was shot Sunday in West Elsdon on the Southwest Side.
He was riding his bicycle about 1:45 p.m. in the 3600 block of West 56th Street when he noticed a white Jeep Wrangler quickly drive by, Chicago police said.
The teen dropped his bike, ran and someone opened fire, striking him in the leg, police said.
He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition, police said.
Area One detectives are investigating.
16-year-old boy shot in West ElsdonSun-Times Wireon September 12, 2021 at 8:53 pm Read More »
Day Two of Pitchfork Music Festival came with unrelenting sunshine and high temperatures, as some festival-goers laid out blankets in the shade and others opted to stand in the sun while watching the day’s first performances at Union Park.
Scorching sets from Bartees Strange and local act Horsegirl made the afternoon feel even hotter, with both groups performing their own high-energy interpretations of indie rock.
Near the intersection of Ashland and W. Washington, two public transportation vessels sat repurposed — a CTA bus parked as a cooling station in anticipation of the day’s heat, and an L train car, converted into a Goose Island Beer Co. stand, where an exclusive festival collaboration beer with Saturday act Faye Webster was being poured.
Just as it had Friday, Pitchforkpushed a mobile notification about an hour before gates opened reminding fans of COVID-19 protocols, including recommendation for masks — which were present on attendees, but far from ubiquitous.
The festival also announced via its app that hip-hop heavyweight Jay Electronica had been dropped from the bill, without explanation. Scheduled to perform in his time slot was producer RP Boo, adding another local Chicago act to this year’s lineup.
But when fans weren’t packed in to see acts like Maxo Kream (who went shirtless in response to the sweltering heat), chilling in the shade or exploring the park, they were waiting in lines. Lines for the water refill station and stands selling alcohol, food and merch could be seen stretching fairly far back. During the dinner rush Friday night, wait times were long for a taste of local vendors like Cevapcici Chicago and Beat Kitchen.
Highly anticipated on Saturday were late-night sets by Jamila Woods and St. Vincent.
Here’s a look at some of Saturday’s sets:
Although St. Vincent performed with the Willis Tower blinking in the distance behind her, the singer and guitarist brought her own skyline anyway — a shadowy backdrop that stretched the width of the Green Stage for her Saturday night headlining slot at Pitchfork Music Festival.
The experimental indie rock artist provided a memorable performance on stage, featuring a revolving setpiece, costumes, choreography and more. It was all part of the fully-realized, high concept productions the 38-year-old — named Annie Clark — has become known for throughout her nearly 17-year career.
Clark’s commitment to an aesthetic is a notable characteristic of her St. Vincent project, for which she has created a taxonomy of album eras defined by fashion and sound — like her domme-style dress during 2017’s “MASSEDUCATION,” or the futuristic, spaceship-chic look of her 2015 self-titled album.
Her current aesthetic and sound for her latest album, “Daddy’s Home,” both draw heavily from the 1970s, as the music veers into funk and R&B and the fashion embraces feathery coats and hair. On Saturday, she sported a blazer emblazoned with the word “Daddy” on the back as she brought the album’s singles “Pay Your Way In Pain” and “The Melting of the Sun” into the live setting.
The new throwback direction also informed her opening song, a funk-inspired reinterpretation of “Digital Witness,” from her self-titled record.
Joining her on stage, in addition to her band, were three background singers — one of the best features of Clark’s performance. With nearly flawless harmonies and tight choreography, the three singers added significantly to each song on which they were present.
Some of the best moments of the night came when Clark dug into her back catalog to perform fan favorites like “Actor Out Of Work” — from 2009’s “Actor” — and “Cheerleader” — from 2011’s “Strange Mercy.” Those prompted passionate sing-alongs from the thousands of fans in attendance, and exhibited the artist’s undeniably inventive talent as a guitarist.
Also in the mix was a skit which served as Clark’s slight kiss-off to Pitchfork, which gave her latest record a less-than-glowing review. Pretending to talk to her sister on an old telephone, she asked the crowd to cheer. “You would only give them a 6.8?” she said with a slight smile, before asking the crowd to cheer again. “I know, I know, Best New Crowd,” she said, hanging up.
Jamila Woods performs at Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park on Saturday night.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Chicago singer-songwriter and poet Jamila Woods made her triumphant return to Pitchfork on the Blue Stage Saturday, where the crowd was ecstatic to see her.
Showcasing her sharp lyrics and masterfully arranged contemporary jazz, R&B and indie-leaning sound, Woods jammed through a set composed of pieces from her latest, 2019’s “LEGACY LEGACY! LEGACY!” and her 2016 debut “HEAVN.”
Woods was joined by a four-piece band and two background singers, making for fully realized adaptations of her songs that brought a new, organic energy to her already vital recordings. The one-two punch of her emotionally evocative instrumentation coupled with her poignant lyrics taking on themes like discrimination, gentrification and sexism was moving. In between a few songs, those themes were emphasized by audio of icons such as the poet Lucille Clifton.
The centerpiece of Woods’ set was her voice — an unwavering apparatus that she deftly wielded throughout her set to convey the emotional range embedded within her songs. On “GIOVANNI,” Woods’ vocals came through clear and riveting as she uttered lines like “I am not your rib, I am not your Eve.” On “Lonely,” she was sober, singing with urgency, “I don’t wanna wait for my life to be over to let myself feel the way I feel.”
The crowd was electric, singing, grooving and smiling as Woods did the same, often with her mic on the stand and hands free to flow with the music, pulling the crowd in with each word — resulting in a captivating performance.
One of the many highlights of her set was a ruminative, slow-burning cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It smoothly segued into her song “BASQUIAT,” to the cheers of fans who enthusiastically yelled “Don’t get burned!” with her on the verses.
Woods also debuted a new song she called “Headfirst,” which sounded like a beautiful meditation on falling for someone. “Come in the water’s warm, I won’t hurt you,” she sang reassuringly. It was her first time playing the song in front of people, she said.
Her set was one of the best of the weekend so far, with the artist and her band in sync and sounding just about perfect, and the palpable feeling of joy and gratitude reciprocated by Woods and her fans
That was apparent as she finished her last song — a stunning blend of both versions of her 2020 single “Sula” — and introduced her band to cap her allotted set time.
As chants of “one more song” came from the front of the crowd, others on the edges tapered off to catch St. Vincent’s headlining set as it kicked off on the Green Stage. But Woods and her band actually heeded the call, stepping back onto the stage for a stirring performance of her song “MUDDY.” It served as a treat for those who stuck around and a thank you to the city that made her.
Georgia Anne Muldrow performs at the Blue Stage at Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday night.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Los Angeles producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow began her Saturday evening set with an affirmation for the growing crowd in front of the Blue Stage.
“I see the best in you. I wish the best for you. I want the best for you!” she yelled into a mic, as a sequin cape sparkled behind her in the dusk of the evening.
As the crowd cheered back, she moved into her set, standing solo on the stage while producing beats, pounding synth keys, singing, rapping and stringing together words that rang like poetry.
The effect was a live, experimental mixtape that spanned her prolific, more than 15-year catalog, interspersed with improvisations. It all made for one of the weekend’s most provocative and captivating performances.
Muldrow’s latest work is an instrumental album titled “VWETO III,” a record “intended for movement,” as she described in a statement upon its release in May. “It’s to be played when you birth yourself back outside after a long introspective period to get the things you need,” she wrote.
That message felt like the ethos of her Saturday evening set, during which Muldrow dropped virtually nonstop freeform beats that kept the crowd moving on their feet.
In addition to her prowess as a producer, her voice was also an incredibly compelling focal point of her set. It unfurled over synth-heavy beats into a mic soaked in an echo effect. It reverberated as she belted through moments of blues and R&B, as she grooved to the edges of the stage. It commanded as she spit bars, reasserting herself as a profoundly talented emcee.
She left the crowd with a final affirmation: “One word — love yourselves more than you do!” she exclaimed, before blowing kisses into the crowd.
Faye Webster performs at the Blue Saga at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park on Saturday.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Backed by a four-piece band featuring what might have been the only pedal steel heard this weekend, Faye Webster gently rocked the sizable crowd gathered at the Blue Stage to see her Saturday.
The Atlanta-based singer-songwriter and guitarist eased into her evening set with mid-tempo selections from this summer’s “I Know I’m Funny haha” — a breezy, alternative-indie folk album infused with elements of rock and country.
Songs like the album’s title track encapsulated Webster’s ability as a lyricist and singer to balance themes of affection coupled with vulnerability, while cheekily cooing lines like, “I think your sisters are so pretty, got drunk and they forgot they met me.” On Saturday she dedicated the song to “all the sh—y men out there.”
As Webster’s tight, laid-back set moved along steadily, rock artist Ty Segall was ripping into his set on the Red Stage at full volume, sometimes drowning out Webster’s slightly subdued vocals.
“Right Side of my Neck,” arguably Webster’s most upbeat track, was a crowd-pleaser, with fans swaying and singing along to every word. The same was true when she and her band covered a song from the Nintendo Switch game, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”
One of the biggest responses from the crowd came during her final song “Kingston,” one of her most well-known singles, off 2019’s “Atlanta Millionaires Club.” As she does in the recording, Webster uttered the lines, “The day that I met you I started dreaming,” acapella, followed by her band kicking in. Live, the drop hit even harder, as fans cheered — moved by the subtle dynamics that make Webster’s sound so catchy.
Check back soon for more from Saturday’s Pitchfork sets.
Festival-goers sit in the grass and listen as Waxahatchee performs on the Green Stage at Pitchfork music festival at Union Park, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A man who was wounded in a shooting last week in Gresham has died.
On Sept. 3, Jamal Gibson, 26, was near the sidewalk in the 1300 block of West 76th Street when someone opened fire, striking him in the head, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Gibson was pronounced dead Sept. 7 at the University of Chicago Medical Center, officials said. An autopsy ruled his death a homicide.
No arrests have been reported.
Man dies days after Gresham shootingSun-Times Wireon September 12, 2021 at 8:16 pm Read More »
A man is accused of fatally shooting another man last December in East Garfield Park.
Rayvon Lofton, 19, is the second man charged with murder in the Dec. 22 slaying of 20-year-old Jim Courtney-Clarks, Chicago police said.
Courtney-Clarks was in the 700 block of North Ridgeway Avenue about 12:45 p.m. that day when he was shot in the chest, police said. He died at Stroger Hospital.
Lofton was arrested Sept. 9 in the Loop after allegedly being identified as one of the attackers, police said.
He was expected to appear in court Sunday.
Rayvon Lofton is charged with murder in a fatal shooting that occurred in December in East Garfield Park. Chicago Police Department
In June, another man also was charged in the case.
Jerryyon Stevens is accused of driving a stolen Honda to the scene of the shooting. There, according to prosecutors, two members of the Traveling Vice Lords got out of the Honda and opened fire at Courtney-Clarks and another man as they walked on the sidewalk.
Stevens, 21, was once featured in a Chicago Magazine profile when he was a teenager. He faces a count of first-degree murder for the apparent gang-related attack on Courtney-Clarks.
Investigators used surveillance camera footage and cellphone records to track Stevens and the two gunmen, according to Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Kevin DeBoni.
Stevens’ face and distinctive clothing was recorded by a camera at a convenience store where Stevens met up with the gunmen before the shooting, DeBoni said at a court hearing in June.
Jerryon StevensChicago police
Stevens was also identified by a Chicago police officer who viewed the surveillance footage and recognized him, DeBoni said.
Stevens was the subject of a lengthy 2016 profile story in Chicago Magazine that detailed his dreams and the hardships he faced growing up on the West Side.
He was working at a family business and for a moving company to support his young daughter before his arrest, an assistant public defender said at that June hearing.
Kaleb Brown had the game against Loyola circled on his calendar and he wasn’t afraid to mention it in the preseason.
“Loyola,” Brown said. “I want to beat them. I haven’t done that in high school, so I want to accomplish that.”
The Ohio State recruit won’t ever get a chance to do that. He’s still on the shelf after picking up a leg injury Week 1 against Mount Carmel.
Brown found himself wandering the Mustangs’ sideline on Saturday in Wilmette. He posed for some pictures and watched his teammates lose without him. St. Rita managed just 25 rushing yards in the game, about one medium-sized Brown run.
St. Rita’s major goal is a state championship and that is still possible. Brown said he’s hoping to be back for Week 6 against Nazareth or Week 7 against Marian Central.
It’s probably safe to assume that most fans don’t know much about South Elgin football. This is only the 16th year the school has been around. The Storm has advanced to the playoffs six times, a very respectable start. But things are ramping up lately.
South Elgin was 9-2 in 2019-20 and undefeated in the spring season. Dragan Teonic’s squad is 3-0 so far this season, making it 24-4 so far in his four years in charge. The Storm has knocked off St. Viator (48-7), East Aurora (58-0) and Glenbard South (35-7) so far this season.
Running back Mason Montgomery had 12 carries for 204 yards on Friday against Glenbard South and sophomore quarterback Jake Sullivan had 24 carries for 126 yards. The Storm runs a triple option offense.
South Elgin’s remaining games are against Larkin, Glenbard East, Streamwood, Elgin, Bartlett and West Chicago. There’s a real chance the team could head into the playoffs as a fairly unknown unbeaten Class 8A team.
The Catholic League matchups will get most of the hype this week. Top-ranked Loyola is at No. 3 Brother Rice and No. 6 Mount Carmel is at No. 4 Marist. All four teams are unbeaten.
But there are two fun games in the south suburbs on Friday as well. No. 20 Lockport is at No. 16 Homewood-Flossmoor. The Vikings are a young team with a new head coach, but a road win for the Porters would definitely open some eyes.
The Joliet area will be hyped for Providence at Joliet Catholic. The Hilltoppers are undefeated and ranked fifth. They enter as heavy favorites. But this one could wind up close. The Celtics knocked off Fenwick in Week 3.
It really looked like Wheaton North was going to win at Batavia on Friday night.
The Falcons led by 10 in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Mark Forcucci is a three-year starter, one of many experienced players for coach Joe Wardynski.
But there just seems to be some magic sprinkled on the Batavia football program the past several years, especially at home.
The Bulldogs found a way. Jalen Buckley ripped off a huge 83-yard touchdown run and everything changed. By the time overtime hit all the momentum was with the hosts, who pulled out a 23-20 win in overtime.
Keep an eye on Batavia linebacker Tyler Jansey, the younger brother of Michael Jansey. He was excellent throughout. Both games I saw this weekend featured underrated linebackers with impressive lineage. Loyola’s Josh Kreutz was a monster against St. Rita.
Neither player seems to be getting much attention in the recruiting world, but that is likely to change.
At the end of another sweltering, exhausting morning of training camp, Cole Kmet is on the practice field behind Halas Hall, daydreaming of the future.
The Bears are Kmet’s team in more ways than one. If he hadn’t pushed his way to the top of college football as a tight end at Notre Dame and compelled the Bears to draft him, he still would have been elated to see them get dynamic Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. Kmet grew up in Arlington Heights, and his father spent the 1993 season on the Bears’ practice squad as a defensive lineman. Even if Kmet had pursued one of his other interests and become a psychologist, he probably would have been screaming at the TV on draft night and rushing to pre-order a Fields jersey.
So in many ways, he’s having the same experience as the rest of the Chicago area. The Fields pick turned everyone’s attention to 2022 and beyond, but the Bears still hope they can squeak into the playoffs with Andy Dalton this season. They’re following two very different, yet concurrent, plans.
And so is Kmet. He’s working to synchronize himself with Dalton — his quarterback for the majority of practice — and make a big leap in his second NFL season. But he also can’t help envisioning what the Bears could be with Fields.
That’s why he’s still out here in his cleats when practice ended 15 minutes ago. The sun is blazing as it nears noon, and he’s sprinting through passing routes with Fields. Their success might be a year away, but he imagines this connection lasting a long time.
“That’s the hope,” Kmet said. “They drafted us with that in mind, so it’s good to get that equity in now — start building that. It will be good for both of us in the long run.”
Fields has been the talk of the town since Bears general manager Ryan Pace traded up to No. 11 to get him in April. Rarely have the Bears had a young quarterback with such proficiency throwing deep. Equally rare is the Bears quarterback who can outrun an entire defense. Suddenly they have both in Fields. Whether he takes over sometime this season or the Bears follow through with their original plan for him to step in at the start of 2022, it’s impossible to keep from looking ahead.
The wait will be agonizing.
Dalton is steady and experienced, but Fields is explosive. His high end is so much more than Dalton has ever been. So unless Dalton, in Year 11, rediscovers the modest success he had in 2015 and ’16 with the Bengals, the calls for Fields will be early and persistent.
They started in his preseason debut. Throughout his 33 snaps against the Dolphins on Aug. 14, a quarterback-starved crowd of 43,235 at Soldier Field chanted, “Let’s go, Fields!” and, more pointedly,
“Q-B-1!” The latter was a response to the Bears tweeting a photo of Dalton in the offseason with “QB1” as the caption.
“You know, we all want the same thing,” coach Matt Nagy said that day, trying fruitlessly to convince the masses he’s not the enemy of fun. “We understand the buzz. We understand the excitement. That’s why we drafted him. But we want to make sure that we . . . understand the process.”
By the way, is “process” going to replace “collaborate” as the word that absolutely nauseates Bears fans?
Nagy’s model for handling Fields is the Chiefs’ approach to No. 10 pick Patrick Mahomes in 2017, when Nagy was their quarterbacks coach. But that doesn’t take into account how many quarterbacks have succeeded as rookies, or the fact that the Chiefs were in a much different position than the Bears are in now.
After the Bears couldn’t pry Russell Wilson from the Seahawks in the offseason, they went for the next best option in Fields. They think he’s that good. Tight end Jimmy Graham, who spent his entire career with Drew Brees, Wilson and Aaron Rodgers before stumbling into the Bears’ quarterback circus, said it unequivocally.
“I love the kid,” Graham said. “He sits beside me in the locker room and, man . . . he wants to be great. He puts in the work. The guy really can throw the ball. That’s been impressive to see his arm strength.
“I’ve got to get him matched up at some point with [Wilson] up there in Seattle — especially the ability to make plays while you’re running. It’s been impressive to see him so young, so focused. It definitely reminds me a lot of Russell Wilson.”
The Seahawks signed Matt Flynn to a three-year, $20.5 million deal in 2012, the same year they drafted Wilson in the third round. But Wilson was too good to keep on the bench, and the Seahawks named him their starter about two weeks before their opener. He threw 26 touchdown passes against 10 interceptions and finished with a 100 passer rating as the Seahawks went 11-5. Only the Patriots have won more games or been to more Super Bowls since Wilson got the job.
The Cowboys’ Dak Prescott had one of the best rookie seasons of all time in 2016, and the Chargers’ Justin Herbert set the rookie record with 31 touchdown passes last season. In more than a century of existence, the Bears have never had any quarterback throw 30.
Mahomes sat behind Alex Smith until a meaningless final game his rookie year, then stepped up with 50 touchdown passes in Year 2 to claim the MVP Award. Nagy admitted he can’t directly attribute that breakout to Mahomes taking a so-called “red-shirt year,” and it’s possible Mahomes would have set every rookie record if he’d played right away.
But the Chiefs didn’t necessarily need that. Smith gave them a career year in 2017. There wasn’t nearly the urgency that weighs on the Bears as they come off flops by Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles and now turn to Dalton. Dalton is decisively better than either of his predecessors, but he assumed he was entering the clipboard phase of his career when he signed with the Cowboys to be Prescott’s backup last year.
The Bears’ offense, which scored the fourth-fewest points in 2019 and the 11th-fewest last season, needs a spark. Dalton can keep the team afloat, but that’s hardly aspirational. There’s potential with weapons such as Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney, Tarik Cohen and David Montgomery — all 27 or under. Throw in someone with Fields’ limitless potential, and the offense gets a lot more dangerous.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day hugs quarterback Justin Fields after their win against Clemson in the Sugar Bowl.Gerald Herbert/AP
In his two seasons at Ohio State, Fields completed 68.4% of his passes, threw for 63 touchdowns against nine interceptions and averaged 244.2 yards per game. He also rushed for 867 yards and 15 touchdowns.
“The ceiling’s really, really high,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I’m sure that’s what everybody in Chicago is fired up about. That’s what the Bears organization recognized.”
Dreaming big yet? Fields surely is. But to his credit, he has said all the right things and has accepted Nagy’s plan.
“I’m constantly growing every day,” he said in training camp. “A lot of people are anxious to see me play, but greatness doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. I’m just trying to take it day by day.”
Pressed again after his preseason debut about the strain between wanting to start and staying patient, he said, “When you look too far in the future, you start worrying about way too much stuff.”
That’s nice to say in the preseason, but it’ll get more difficult to wait his turn once the Bears hit the regular season. It’ll also get tougher for Nagy to manage the tension. The only way that goes away is if Dalton dominates, which seems unlikely as he approaches 34.
If Dalton performs in line with what he averaged the last five seasons — 19 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 221.8 yards per game and an 86.5 passer rating — then Fields’ upside will loom large in everyone’s mind.
That includes Nagy’s. His initial thought of putting Fields through a one-season apprenticeship was never concrete. The only thing he fully committed to was going with Dalton against the Rams in the opener. If that goes poorly, everything is on the table. He benched Trubisky in Week 3 last season, after all. There’s little doubt Fields could be ready that soon.
And that’s the part of the equation that has nothing to do with Dalton. Fields isn’t a project. He was a Heisman finalist as a true sophomore. The only QB who outdid him was Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, and Fields played through broken ribs to topple him with six touchdown passes.
His deep ball flies like an arrow, and he’s faster than some of the Bears’ wide receivers. No one seems to remember the last time the franchise had a quarterback like this — maybe because it never has. It’s immediately apparent how much more Fields can do than, for example, Trubisky, whom the Bears traded up to draft No. 2 overall four years ago.
A player like Fields doesn’t stay on the bench long; his talent forces the issue without him saying a word. As the anticipation accumulates, Nagy will be as eager as everyone else to see what he can do. And when Fields’ promise is finally too enticing to resist, a new chapter of Bears football finally will begin.
