5 Things the Bears Need to Do Correctly After Trading Justin Fields

Develop the Quarterback

Sometimes the Bears may have had solid quarterback talent and the complaint was that they didn't know how to "develop" them. Describing what "develop" means is tricky. Is it media training? Is it reading defenses? Is it leadership training? Is it knowing when to throw the ball away? Is it knowing when to run?

It may be all the above. Matt Nagy, a former Bears coach, was Patrick Mahomes' QB coach before and after his stint with the Bears. When Nagy was with the Bears, his mentorship for Trubisky and Fields looked like he may not have had much exposure to football before, and definitely not much command of the quarterback position.

Matt Nagy did not teach Mahomes the no-look pass. Nagy did not teach Mahomes to sometimes throw left handed. Nagy did not teach Mahomes how to extend plays and create something from absolutely less than nothing. Mahomes was already a phenomenal quarterback, with phenomenal talent, with phenomenal instincts.

But Nagy is doing something. Maybe teaching him when to break out the bag of tricks or maybe giving him the confidence to trust his instincts and break out the bag whenever he feels like it.

The point is that there is a point to developing quarterbacks and the Bears have never shown aptitude for the process. With the offensive talent available and the first pick available (again), the Bears must do everything right when it comes to the next quarterback for the team.

Developing probably means identifying the player's weaknesses and coming up either with solutions or a game plan that doesn't expose those weaknesses. It doesn't mean forcing the QB into a system that emphasizes his weaknesses or even exposes them. It doesn't mean running practices and video sessions the way the coaches think is best. It means understanding how the new QB learns, how he digests information, and conforming the process around the player.