Chicago Bears: Justin Fields’ second season very similar to Jalen Hurts

After being a question mark coming into the NFL, Jalen Hurts led the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl in his third season. This is precisely why insinuating the Chicago Bears should trade Justin Fields and draft Bryce Young is a hilarious statement.

Look at what the Eagles did for Hurts after his second season. They went out and traded for A.J. Brown. They had already put together arguably the league’s best offensive line.

Now, this isn’t to assume the Bears are going to go out and make a huge wide receiver trade and fix the entire offensive line in one offseason, at least not turning their line into one of the very best. However, the blueprint has been laid out for a quarterback like Fields to succeed going into his third year.

Looking back at the season Hurts had, it was pretty special, and it was only his third year in the league. We’re coming up on a crucial offseason for Fields; one where he enters his third professional season. Can he make the same jump Hurts did?

There are many similarities between Justin Fields and Jalen Hurts when it comes to their second seasons in the league

Assessing the facts, numbers will tell you that Fields has a good shot to improve greatly in his third year. Will he take the same jump as Hurts? That’s not as likely. But, will he take a significant jump? There’s certainly reason to believe so.

Let’s look at Hurts’ second season with the Eagles:

3,144 passing yards

16 touchdowns

9 interceptions

Completion percentage: 61.3%

Touchdown percentage of 3.7%

Yards per attempt: 7.3

784 rushing yards

10 rushing touchdowns

3,928 total yards

26 total touchdowns

Now, let’s look at Fields’ second season in the NFL, with a bottom-five offensive line and bottom-five receiving core:

2,242 passing yards

17 passing touchdowns

11 interceptions

Completion percentage: 60.4%

Touchdown percentage: 5.3%

Yards per attempt: 7.1

1,143 rushing yards

8 rushing touchdowns

3,385 total yards

25 total touchdowns

Fields threw 114 less passes in his second season than Hurts did, so the passing yardage disparity adds up. But, as you can see, the yards per attempt were very similar, and the touchdown percentage was in favor of Fields.

Let’s assume Fields threw 100 or so more passes, and he’d be right up there near Hurts’ total, and that’s throwing to Darnell Mooney for half a season with little to no protection in front of him.

Even if the Bears marginally improve their offensive line, and go out to find themselves a true alpha wide receiver in the draft or via trade, you have to believe the physical and mental traits are there for Fields to take a leap.

Those who argue that Fields cannot throw, just take a moment, head to twitter and search “Fields can’t throw.” You will find plenty of videos debunking this myth. Fields was the most accurately graded passer ever, by Pro Football Focus, when throwing past the sticks in college. He came into the league with a cannon and plenty of accuracy.

The “trade Justin Fields” camp is one of the most off-based groups of people we have seen in sports over the last decade. Those are the people who are going to be proved dead wrong when Fields takes his third-year leap.

Ryan Poles, the ball is in your court, now.