Justin Fields' Lack of Growth is Concerning

Through the first two weeks of the season, Justin Fields has done nothing to silence the questions about his abilities as a passer. After an underwhelming performance against the Packers in Week 1, he again struggled against the Buccaneers in Week 2, leaving numerous big plays on the field and making costly mistakes that a 3rd-year quarterback shouldn’t be making.

On this first example, Fields ended up taking a sack after missing what should have been an easy touchdown.

This was a brilliant play design that completely broke down Tampa’s coverage. The Bears came out in a 2x2 formation with running back Roschon Johnson offset to Fields’ right. Then they motioned receiver Trent Taylor across the formation, which put 4 pass catchers to one side of the field:

It looked like the Bears might be running a bubble screen to Taylor with the receivers ahead of him blocking. That held Tampa’s underneath defenders to that side close to the line of scrimmage:

But each of those would-be blockers ended up running routes downfield instead:

The #1 receiver, Tyler Scott, took his route inside, which got the free safety to bite:

That left two receivers running go-routes with just one remaining defender deep:

Between the motion, the bubble action, and the fact that those two deep routes came from a running back out of the backfield and an in-line tight end, the Buccaneers were caught with their pants down.

Fields would end up pumping as if he wanted to throw to the tight end on the outside. That moved the deep-third corner towards the sideline:

And that left Roschon Johnson with no one near him for what should have been an easy touchdown:

Fields didn’t pull the trigger, though. And despite a ton of time in the pocket, he ended up taking a sack:

Again, look at the time he had from the end zone angle:

Whether you want to call that a vision problem or being too slow to process, we’ve seen this time and time again with Fields. He doesn’t see the field well and doesn’t get through his reads quickly enough.

That wasn’t the only example from Week 2, as you can see below on this pick-6: