Frank Kogan

Anyway, Justin Fields and the Bears' offense have blossomed in the last three weeks, owing to the team's using Fields on a lot more designed runs. Now, I haven't really looked at how his passes and scrambles have gone in those three weeks, though obviously the scramble I embedded in the above comment is amazing (anyone reading a heading that refers to "our understanding of football" should take account of my understanding of football being very poor, and my attention scattershot). I'll say as my hypothesis, which I may never test (I'll wait for some analyst to show up with it, if they ever do), that defenses still aren't as faked out* by his scrambles as by some other quarterbacks' scrambles – at this point they're probably looking for runs by him anyway – BUT, because he's such a good runner, his running is opening up the rest of the run game. I don't know this at all, though. I'm just noticing what Shane Haff said in the video I linked two comments up about Jalen Hurts's running setting up the rest of the Eagles' run game, and guessing that this might apply to the Bears' run game as well.

Anyway, that I know anything about this is because I read and listen to what other people say; here's Ben Solak's new video about how the Bears' have changed their offense to center on designed runs for Fields.

*[EDIT: "In last week’s loss to the Dolphins, Justin Fields had the highest expected points added on scrambles of any quarterback in a single game over the past 10 years" (Sheil Kapadia, The Ringer, 11/10/22). So, fooled or not, the Dolphins couldn't rein in the scrambles.]