Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields was great on roll outs in his first season
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields had moments of brilliance in his rookie season last year. Fields looked his best when using his legs to get out of the pocket. However, many Bears fans wondered why Matt Nagy wasn’t using roll outs and getting him out of the pocket, especially when Fields seemed his best doing that.
Bears fans weren’t crazy. Matt Nagy was. USA Today NFL analyst Doug Farrar tweeted a stat that confirmed Fields was his best rolling out during his rookie season.
Justin Fields had the NFL’s highest passer rating with 138.5 on designed rollouts, and the Bears called them on just 19 of Fields’ attempts.
Matt Nagy is awful, Part 536,209,364.
Impressive, right?
The problem is that Fields only had 19 rollout attempts in his rookie season which is just gross. Fields played in 12 games, so he averaged only having approximately 1.5 roll outs a game. It shows Nagy didn’t know what he was doing. He failed to play to his quarterback’s strengths and didn’t analyze games properly.
Playing to Fields strengths will help the Bears
New offensive coordinator Luke Getsy is shaking up the offensive scheme. Tight end Cole Kmet hinted the Bears would see a lot of play-action. It’s a good guess this will include a lot of rollouts. The jury is still out on FIelds, but Bears fans expect that he can flourish with the right system in place. Fields needs to be able to use his speed to get more time and his arm strength to get passes thrown downfield this season.
Nagy didn’t have that system. His stubbornness on playcalling seemed questionable to even the casual Bears fan. Why would he and general manager Ryan Pace draft Fields, only for Nagy to use him in a system that didn’t work for any quarterback he brought in?
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