What a Win Over Packers Could Do for Justin Fields

In Chicago, they chant Justin Fields’ name and want him back. In Green Bay, he’s not likely to have many fans and even less after his comment about the area during Wednesday’s press conference about the upcoming season finale with the Packers. “It’s going to be a fun environment to walk into their home field,” Fields said. “I know their fans are going to be loud because there’s not much to do in Green Bay except watch football, but it’s going to be a great environment to us, for us to play in and hopefully have a great game and get the Dub on Sunday.”

Fields obviously won’t be able to run for mayor in Green Bay or Ashwaubenon, or any other place with supper clubs, fine brews and excellent fishing in Cheeseheadland soon. There’s no guarantee he’ll be back any time in the future as quarterback for the Packers’ arch rivals, either The Bears will have decisions to make after the season ends and Fields isn’t talking much about it these days Teammates from DJ Moore to players on defense like Montez Sweat and tyrique Stevenson have said they want him to return. It’s possible that what GM Ryan Poles decides to do with the first pick of the draft could be impacted by Fields’ performance at Green Bay. After all, if you haven’t beaten the Packers in nine tries and then Fields does it to finish the year with six wins in eight games, it’s going to make a trade awfully difficult for Bears players and fans to accept.

Fields has been part of five of those losses to the Packers himself. The Bears have scored 26 points or more in four of Fields’ starts since returning from his thumb injury and they can definitely live with that kind of production if their defense is playing the way they have since Nov. 9 against Carolina, if not earlier. Another problem with getting rid of Fields is the locker room support. The entire locker room has become tight after making it through a rough first year and a half of the rebuild and they recognize Fields as their leader. “You know just how tight-knit we are, you know, how we’ve grown over the season,” Fields said.

“You know like I said it feels like almost a college locker room where you pretty much live within a 10-minute radius of all the guys. You’re always hanging out and stuff like that. The chemistry that we have, the closeness that we have within our group is amazing to see and it’s rare in the NFL.” And they should risk this all by using the top pick of the draft to replace Fields? That would be a gutsy decision to say the least. It would also mean the end of the on-field tandem of Fields to DJ Moore. No. 1 to No. 2. Moore has a career-high eight touchdown catches and 1,300 receiving yards. He’ll set a career high with 94 receptions if he makes two catches Sunday against Green Bay. It’s a mutual admiration. Moore said last week and the week before he didn’t want Fields to leave. On Wednesday, Fields gave out praise to Moore. “You know, I’ll just talk about how smart he is, how he understands leverages, coverages, has tempo in and out of his routes,” Fields said. “Of course he’s just a great player and playmaker. So it’s great having him on the team. He makes my job easier like I always say.” Field recognizes the other contribution they’ve been getting on offense. It’s from his defense. It’s hard to miss when you get four takeaways. “Like I always say after the game, it makes my job easier when they give us short fields and take the ball away,” Fields said. “On offense, if you’re having a slow day, you can worry about field position. “I think Cleveland was a great example.

The first half was kind of a defensive battle at first and field position was really important. When you get a team backed up or we’re backed up, that’s an advantage then. When you have a defense that’s playing really well, you don’t have to force stuff downfield. You can take what the (opposing) defense gives you and really just know that your defense is going to have your back. The way that they’ve been playing, our job as an offense has been way easier. Like I said, shoot, we put up 28 points and the game is pretty much almost over. Defense has been playing great and looking forward to them playing lights out one more time this year. It’s going to be fun.” Even if it is going to be in a place where he says there’s nothing else going on.