This week, former Chicago Bears Director of Player Personnel Josh Lucas revealed some troubling information about Justin Fields being disrespectful to veteran teammates during his first season in the league.
The Bears have a huge decision to make in the next few weeks. For the second straight year, they will have the top overall selection in the NFL Draft but have an incumbent starting quarterback that many believe can be a franchise signal caller and has shown flashes of elite-level play in his first three seasons.
The Justin Fields vs. Caleb Williams — the likely top pick in April — debate has raged for weeks and a former member of the Chicago staff added some new wrinkles to the discourse about some troubling instances of immaturity from Fields during his rookie season.
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Justin Fields was ‘standoffish and abrasive’ with Chicago Bears teammates in rookie season
During an appearance on the “2nd City Gridiron” podcast, former Bears Director of Player Personnel Josh Lucas spilled some tea about his experience working with Fields during his first season in the NFL. And his questionable level of maturity as he surprisingly rubbed veteran teammates the wrong way and did not welcome using their experience to his benefit.
“Justin wasn’t great his rookie year. We thought having two vets with him would really help him with [Andy Dalton] and [Nick Foles], and that was not cohesive at all. The part I kinda liked about it is Justin knew he was the best and should be out there. But the part you don’t like about it is there’s a teachable moment in every point of practice.
“There [are] teachable moments in the building during the day, how you carry yourself as a quarterback. There are teachable moments at press conferences. There [are] teachable moments every snap on Sunday. And when you’ve got two guys who’ve won as much as Nick and seen as much as Andy, and you don’t take that information in because you’re a little standoffish and a little abrasive you’re wasting that opportunity.”
– Josh Lucas
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Fields may have grown a lot in the two years since then, but it’s interesting that the youngster was not willing to take valuable lessons from others in the QB room who have seen a lot in the NFL already. One has to wonder if his self-confidence may have hurt his growth as a signal-caller in his first three seasons in the league.
