On Monday, when the Chicago Bears report to Halas Hall for week two of training camp, all eyes will once again be on rookie quarterback Justin Fields. Throughout the offseason, Fields has continued to impress the Bears with his work ethic. Prior to leaving for summer break, the Bears had a simple homework assignment for Fields: Learn how to call a play effectively into a huddle.
Fields spent summer break mastering this. On Monday morning, Bears head coach Matt Nagy detailed what the next step is in Fields development as the Bears continue to develop their future franchise quarterback. Bears head coach Matt Nagy has used the word “plan” multiple times throughout the offseason as a way to describe where Fields is really at and how the Bears plan to develop the 11th overall pick moving forward.
“Well now, so I think he really has the huddle part down in regards to calling the plays,” Nagy said via the Bears official Twitter account. “He sees the play when he calls it. He doesn’t just ready the play now, he’s past that, so you can check that one off. He’s got to continue to do that. Now, it’s going to be going through his progressions, post-snap. Things change. Disguise coverages. They hide their blitzes, knowing where your protection calls are, being on the same page with the center. And that’s where I think now when things get real when you start putting the pads on, and the tempo picks up, and you’re playing, now we want to be able to see him execute plays and play fast. That’s probably the biggest thing.”
Effectively going through post-snap progressions throughout training camp will allow Fields to get an idea of what to expect during NFL games. What does on in training camp is never comparable to an NFL game but it’ll still be a good enough test for the Bears coaching staff to see where Fields is really at when it comes to his development.