Justin Fields was up and down in his short preseason debut

Justin Fields’ Chicago Bears defeated Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs by a final score of 19-14 on Saturday in their first preseason matchup of the season. It was a nice showing for a lot of players, especially in the second half when the Bears scored 19 unanswered points to complete the comeback.

We all know that the final score really doesn’t matter in the preseason but it is good to see some of these guys do what they need to do to become noticeable. However, everything with this team starts and ends with their quarterback.

Justin Fields did okay as he only had a few reps early in the game. He went three and out on the first drive so he was given another one to try and get something going. They didn’t go three and out on that one but they did fail to score any points.

To say that it was an up and down performance would be accurate. Fields went 4/7 for 48 yards passing. One of his passes was a big gain on a connection with Darnell Mooney. These two clearly have some insane chemistry and are poised for a big season.

Fields also had one big rushing gain where he earned ten yards. Making plays with his legs is going to be a big key to this offense getting the most out of themselves. If he is a legit duel threat in this league, he will become one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

Justin Fields had an up and down start to the preseason on Saturday.

It isn’t all going to happen in one season. Everyone needs to pretend that the Matt Nagy/Justin Fields year never existed because nothing good happened for him in that year. There are going to be growing pains all year long and this preseason game showed some good and some bad.

Fields clearly needs to be better at getting rid of the ball quickly. This offensive line isn’t going to be good so he has to do that while also making those big plays with his legs on the fly.

There was one play where he gave himself up to slide on a run and was hit high anyway. That was a smart decision by him because he needs to take as few hits as possible but the officiating needs to punish defensive players who don’t stop on those. Hopefully, Fields continues to try and protect himself as much as he can.

With a couple of more preseason games left to go, you should start seeing Fields progress with more playing time. If all goes well, he should be ready for week one against the San Francisco 49ers. This game was one where he looked good at times but there is room for a lot of improvement.