How much was Bears QB Justin Fields affected by pressure in 2021?
Bears quarterback Justin Fields’ rookie season was rocky to say the least. To the point that head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were relieved of their duties and a new regime ushered in.
Pro Football Focus examined how different quarterbacks were affected by pressure, based on the difference in their PFF grades from a clean pocket and pressured pocket.
Fields was among those quarterbacks that were affected most when pressured. He had a clean-pocket passing grade of 78.4 and a pressured-pocket passing grade of 33.1 for a difference of 45.3.
That ranked fourth most behind only San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo (1st), Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa (2nd) and Houston’s Davis Mills (3rd).
The Buckeye-turned-Bear signal-caller registered only 353 total dropbacks — the second-fewest of the group — and only 87 of his attempts were pressured. He completed 40 of them with only two touchdowns. Fields tied for the fifth-most turnover-worthy plays (11) and was sacked 36 times on such plays.
Considering the circumstances that Fields was dealing with — questionable offensive line and and even worse play caller in Nagy — it’s not a surprise. Fields was sacked nine times in his first start against the Cleveland Browns, and it’s hard to imagine that wasn’t in the back of his mind for the duration of his rookie season.
Looking ahead of the 2022 season, things aren’t much better. There are still questions along the offensive line, as the Bears don’t have their starting combination in place heading into training camp. Not to mention, outside of Darnell Mooney, Fields doesn’t have any proven commodities at wide receiver.
But the good news is that Fields finally has an adequate play caller in new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who’s already promised to build the offense around Fields’ strengths.
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