Column: Crisis-management season arrives earlier than usual for the woeful Chicago Bears

Nothing darkens the mood of Chicagoans more than a bad Bears team with an ineffective quarterback.

And only two games into the 2023 season, both quandaries threaten to ruin our fall.

Justin Fields, the latest and most likable quarterback the organization has thrown at us in several decades, has failed to show signs of progress at the outset of his third season, prompting questions of whether he’ll wind up as another flop in a long list of Bears QB mistakes.

But now it’s what Fields said, and not what he does, that has the Bears in crisis-management mode and their fans in an uproar.

It’s said that the two most important people in Chicago are the mayor and the Bears starting quarterback. One is elected, so we’re stuck with him or her for four years for better or worse. The other is chosen by an employee of the McCaskeys, the family that owns the Bears and holds the key to our happiness from September to January.

Trusting the Bears to make the right move always has been risky business, but Fields’ arrival in 2021 prompted howls of joy. Two years later, it’s just howls.

Compounding the frustration of Bears fans is that Fields’ greatest attribute — his ability to escape the pocket and elude tacklers on the run — was missing in Sunday’s 27-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He looked statuesque at times, taking hits while searching in vain for his primary targets, receivers DJ Moore and Darnell Mooney. What happened?

The answer came Wednesday when Fields complained at his news conference about being too “robotic” in the field, blaming coaches for him overthinking in the pocket. When the sound bite hit the fan, via the internet and sports-talk radio, Fields was out practicing for Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Alerted to the firestorm he created, Fields later invited the media to his locker at Halas Hall to backtrack, saying all the right things about his respect for the coaches and taking responsibility for his performance.

Fields’ remarks and mea culpa and the sudden resignation of defensive coordinator Alan Williams for reasons that remain unclear made the Bears the talk of the NFL on Wednesday. Veteran Halas Hall observers called it one of the strangest days they had seen, and the Bears were suddenly in a public relations crisis.

Fortunately, crisis management is George McCaskey’s middle name, as evidenced by his 2022 news conference announcing the firings of GM Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy. The Bears chairman sent GM Ryan Poles out to the media Thursday to snuff out any fires, leaving President Kevin Warren on the sideline.

Poles assured reporters no one was “flinching,” from owner Virginia McCaskey to the players, adding that he, George McCaskey and Warren were handling the Williams situation “the right way” and that Fields was not playing the blame game.

“No one in our entire building, none of our coaches see Justin as a finger pointer at all,” Poles said.

He admitted Fields was “trying to figure it out” with better players on offense, most notably Moore, the receiver acquired in the deal that sent the top pick of the 2023 draft to the Carolina Panthers.

“Now he gets talent around him and has to figure out and balance when to do those cool things athletically, when to lean on others,” Poles said of Fields. “And that is sometimes a gray place to live in. That takes time.”

The “cool things athletically” presumably are the plays Fields makes with his feet, though completing a bomb once in a while also would be a cool thing showing his athleticism as well. Instead, he’s mostly been asked to call screen passes like a game manager, i.e. a robot.

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, the one most responsible for making Fields a successful NFL quarterback, echoed Poles’ “kumbaya” narrative. Getsy said he and Fields were on an “everlasting journey,” sounding like the guy who winds up with the rose on “The Bachelorette.”

Not since Bears coach Jim Dooley moved in with Bobby Douglass to teach him the playbook, earning the nickname “the Odd Couple,” have a Bears play caller and quarterback been so tied at the hip.

The weight of the world was on Fields, and Getsy tried to lessen the burden.

“I appreciate the fact that what we do for a living is important and it affects so many people,” Getsy said. “I think the cool part about it is you have an individual that cares that much, as I do myself. And I think that’s why we connect so well.”

No one cares about their relationship as long as Fields improves. The problem for Poles and Getsy is most Bears fans have TVs and have been watching the first two games, albeit with one hand over their eyes. They don’t envision Fields excelling as a pocket passer, which is what the Bears appear to be trying to make him into.

The only solution is to let Justin be Justin, or play with a “F it” mentality, as Fields insisted he would this week against the reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

Fields might have chosen his words more wisely, but he was correct in his assessment that the time is now to just say ‘F it” and play the way he knows best. Tailor the offense to his strengths instead of his weaknesses.

Would it work? Maybe not, but if this is a make-or-break season for Fields, what do the Bears have to lose?

The franchise’s longtime quarterback dilemma is mentioned on virtually every broadcast of their games and will be brought up again Sunday when some announcer reminds us they missed out on drafting Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, maybe the best quarterback of all time, for Mitch Trubisky.

Since the late Mike McCaskey was put in charge of the operation following the death of owner George “Papa Bear” Halas in October 1983, Bears management has drafted or signed dozens of quarterbacks. None left an enduring mark, save perhaps for perpetually sulking Jay Cutler.

Fields was hyped as The Answer after replacing Trubisky, and his progression in 2022, even in an otherwise awful season, provided hope he still could be the savior Bears fans have been pining for since Jim McMahon’s exit. Moore’s presence was supposed to free Fields up to throw downfield more often while still using his creativity to run when necessary. He could be like Lamar Jackson, the multitalented Baltimore Ravens quarterback.

That hasn’t happened in the two losses. And when trying to explain why, Fields fell down a self-created manhole and had to climb back up to appease his coaches — and probably his representatives in charge of getting him Dunkin’ Donuts commercials.

No one wants a cranky quarterback questioning the game plan or endorsing a product.

It’s too bad Fields backtracked from his criticism of coaches for making him “robotic” and thinking too much. It might have been the most honest remark from a Bears quarterback since Virgil Carter was benched after halftime of the final game in 1969 and called Dooley “gutless and a liar,” adding he would leave after the season.

When Tribune reporter Robert Markus pointed out Halas could hold him to his option, Carter replied: “I hope he wouldn’t be chicken (bleep) enough to do that.” Carter was fined $1,000 and eventually released, which proved Halas wasn’t chicken bleep after all. Hopefully Fields won’t become gun-shy and start giving robotic answers, as is commonplace for many modern athletes afraid to speak their minds.

As the Bears try to move on from the dual crises of Fields’ remarks and Williams’ mysterious resignation, at least we know the McCaskeys are well-drilled in how to handle these things.

Fifteen games remain in this everlasting journey.

Bear down, Chicago.