What are Justin Fields’ most important checkpoints in 2023?

COMPLICATING FACTORS

Fields is averaging 6.5 yards per attempt and has more interceptions (three) than touchdowns (two) after two weeks. His average depth of target is just 5.3 yards, the second lowest at the position, and a league-low 22.7% of his passing attempts have traveled beyond the first-down markers. By any objective measure, Fields has looked terrible to start the season as a passer — the biggest area of focus for him and the Bears this season.

But it’s not all him. A Chicago offensive line that was bolstered in the offseason has been poor. The group has earned a 52.8 PFF grade, even as Fields makes it look worse than it actually is with his pocket presence and tendency to hold the ball.

Chicago’s offense came to an epiphany midway through last season that designed runs for Fields were an important foundation of his production, but the team seems to have completely forgotten that information.

Fields recorded 18 rushing yards on designed runs through Week 6 last season, before gaining 55 yards on designed runs against the Patriots and 349 for the remainder of the season.

In two games this season, the Bears have called four designed runs for Fields, one of which was a quarterback sneak. Those plays have gone nowhere, but last season showed what a vital component of the offense they are. Not calling them this year seems like a willful commitment to inefficiency.

THE PROBLEMS

With 10 sacks taken in two games this season, Fields is ahead of only rookie C.J. Stroud. Only four of those sacks have actually been charged to Chicago blockers, with Fields either partly or wholly responsible for the others.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If Fields was a rookie, we would be evaluating his tape as evidence of a talented but extremely raw prospect — somebody in need of structure around him and an offense that limits its asks and restricts how much he has to do on any given play. He isn’t a rookie, though, and while his environment has been awful for most of his first two years, it’s very concerning that he is at this level at the start of Year 3 in the league.