Former Chicago Bears wide receiver sounds off on Justin Fields

Despite the name of the podcast, I would prefer not to pardon Brandon Marshall’s take on Chicago Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields.

On Friday morning, Pardon My Take released their newest podcast which featured Cam Newton and Brandon Marshall as guests. During their interview, host “Big Cat” Dan Katz engaged Marshall on every Chicago fan’s favorite (or least favorite) topic: Justin Fields.

What followed was one of the more blunt and honest assessments of those who engage in the Justin Fields debate. To sum up Marshall’s NSFW statement, he said that Justin Fields should be left alone until his situation is properly addressed.

If you take offense to Marshall’s words, perhaps it is time to look in the mirror.

The Chicago Bears and their faithful should worry about the entire organization before they worry about Justin Fields.

Before I continue, let me ask one simple question: How many quarterbacks have you ever watched play for the Chicago Bears whom you could say had elite professional talent?

The only correct answer is two. Other than Jay Cutler and Justin Fields, the Chicago Bears have fielded nothing more than run-of-the-mill quarterbacks when it comes to talent.

I can hear the naysayers now. Who cares about talent? It’s about production, it’s about the numbers, it’s about wins and losses, right?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I could not disagree more.

Looking back at Jay Cutler’s tenure, it is clear to me that we wasted Cutler’s talent. For years we saddled him with poor protection and weapons. When those situations improved, we saddled him with one of the worst defenses in the league.

Who received the blame for losing? Jay Cutler, despite him being the only reason the Chicago Bears were relevant at all during most of his years spent playing in the Windy City.

You would think this city and this organization would have learned from wasting an elite talent. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be so.

If you think that we have given Justin Fields the best chance to succeed, I’d ask you to reevaluate. We’ve done nothing but stand in his way.

We have consistently offered nothing but roadblocks to his development, whether it was giving Andy Dalton all of the first team reps his rookie year before throwing him to the wolves with a lame-duck head coach, failing to provide a solid gameplan every week that is suited to his strengths as a quarterback from Day 1 until the present, or purposefully setting up a tank roster around him while expecting him to “show progress.”

Those who wish to move on from Justin Fields will say those are nothing but excuses. I call it using my eyes and brain to assess an entire situation instead of a single player. Other successful quarterbacks normally don’t have to endure the level of ineptitude that Justin Fields has had to endure during his time as a Bear.

Is Justin Fields perfect? Absolutely not. There are holes in Fields’ game, but that’s not the point. We could be playing to his strengths instead of insisting we play to his weaknesses. We could be helping him, yet we don’t. This needs to be addressed to have a proper evaluation.

Brandon Marshall is right. The Chicago Bears haven’t had a competent offensive coordinator for a single day while Justin Fields has been here. Before this year, his rosters were bottom of the barrel.

Until we give Fields the same courtesies that other highly drafted quarterbacks receive, he should be left alone.

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