Chicago Bears OC Luke Getsy says he’s encouraged by QB Justin Fields even with improvement needed

“Yeah, no, I have great faith in Justin,” Getsy said. “You’ve seen the growth he had a year ago to where he is now. He still has a long way to go to get to where we want to be, and he knows it.

“But nobody works harder than Justin. The kind of guy he is, the kind of leader he is, (I’m) really excited to see what we can do this coming season, you can see the biggest growth for 2022.”

For some, this might seem like the obvious position to take. After all, despite the Bears going 3-14 (3-12 in games he started), Fields has made major statistical progress in almost every passing category since his rookie season in 2021 until this season when he threw for 2,242 yards. , 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Fields also rushed for 1,143 yards — only the third NFL QB to top 1,000 in a season — and eight touchdowns in 15 games.

But owning the first choice changes things. Bears GM Ryan Poles and the lion’s share of the team’s scouting department were not on Fields’ drafting. Perhaps there is a stronger debate to be had if this draft class featured rare, generational talent at QB. That’s arguably not the case, though there could still be multiple first-round QBs, with Alabama’s Bryce Young, Kentucky’s Will Levis, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Florida’s Anthony Richardson as possible candidates.

The Poles have also previously said he should be ‘absolutely blown away to make this type of decision’.

Getsy added that Fields’ leadership was another facet of his game that has seen strong growth. “He put the team on their toes for a few weeks there and showed he was capable of it,” Getsy said.

When asked what he thinks the Bears offense might look like in 2023 and what their identity might be, he spoke more about the other offensive positions around Fields that needed more clarity before he or the Bears cannot know this answer.

“Yeah, I think that’s the biggest question mark,” Getsy said. “It’s like, who do we have (in attack)? So it always sort of gets on Justin, like, hey, you evolved into Justin, but we evolved into the 11s (players).

“We have to figure out who those 11 will be and then figure out how to give every guy the opportunity to be successful in what they do. So once we have that in place in the next two months, we have to go from there. and figuring out exactly who we want to be.”