Listen, when Justin Fields was drafted he became the sole focus of Bears Fans. He was a product out of Ohio State who flashed elite deep ball placement and a knack for accuracy along with elite speed. What he lacked, however, was the one intangible he never showed in a Bear’s uniform.

Justin Fields pocket presence left a lot to be desired. In his 3 seasons in Chicago, Fields was sacked 131 times. As a result, sacks could then both be credited more with the quarterback or offensive line. Plus, it was not like Chicago’s offensive line wasn’t elite by any means. But a lot of the time Fields had a clean pocket and either took off into a sack or did his magic by way of scrambling.

Caleb Williams, on the other hand, has a different knack for pocket presence, or so it appears. Sure his TTT (Time to Throw) was 3.21 coming out of college but what Williams flashed was elite pocket presence. There still may be a learning curve as the average TTT in the NFL last season was 2.7 seconds. And in a direct comparison to Justin Fields, his 3 year average TTT was 3.8 seconds. The difference is, when Fields felt pressure, he would simply tuck the ball and run. Caleb Williams, on the other hand would step up, or move back, sometimes even moving laterally, but he always kept his eyes downfield looking for that 20 yard pass play, instead of the 4 to 6 yard running play. This, bought him valuable time and most importantly, stay in rhythm.

This is proven also by his numbers last season. Fields had an average yards per pass play of only 6.9 yards and a rushing average of 5.3 yards. He completed a total of 227 passes. In contrast he ran 124 times. To further prove the point, as a team the Chicago Bears they ranked 27th in total passing yards and 2nd in total rushing yards.

This is something Bears Fans have missed over the last 3 years. For all of Fields magic he had in his legs the pocket presence was lacking and had lacked over the last 3 seasons. Bears fans hope this time is different.

By Z. Kendall

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