The Pittsburgh Steelers fetched QB Justin Fields for just a future conditional sixth-round pick in March. While the Chicago Bears already determined to move on with first-overall pick Caleb Williams, you very rarely see a top-15 quarterback command so little in trade compensation at age 25. The price alone suggests a player with more than his share of struggles.
And Emmanuel Acho argues that many of his struggles in Chicago were of his own making. Many of Fields’ defenders trash the Bears for being an unstable organization, and that’s certainly valid. But a franchise quarterback saves a lot of people’s jobs.
“Talent begets stability”, Acho said on FS1’s Speak program this week. “I was like, ‘Dang, Justin Fields has had a lot of turnover’. A couple [offensive coordinators] in Chicago, he’s got a new OC here. But the reason that he’s had so much turnover is in large part his fault”.
The Bears had Matt Nagy as head coach in 2021 when they drafted Justin Fields, his fourth and final year. They fired both him and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor a year later. While Fields did have Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy as head coach and offensive coordinator the past two years, the reality is that he is gone and off to more change. Eberflus is still in Chicago, but he has replaced Getsy with Shane Waldron.
“If you succeed, there’s a lot more stability where you are because you’re succeeding”, Acho said, regarding the turnover around Fields during his career. “Your head coach isn’t gonna leave. Then your offensive coordinator is either gonna [stay or] become a head coach. But if your offensive coordinator leaves to become a head coach, assuming you succeeded, they’ll promote the QB coach as the offensive coordinator and they’ll run the exact same playbook”.
As most Steelers fans have committed to memory by now, Justin Fields has a 10-28 record as a starter. He is 578-for-958 passing for 6,674 yards with 40 touchdowns to 30 interceptions. As a runner, he has 2,220 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns over the past three years. But you don’t lose nearly 75 percent of your games without sharing much of the blame.
“A lack of talent begets instability”, Acho said. “There’s gonna be so much turnover every year or two because of the lack of success around Justin Fields. I’m not blaming it all on him. I do believe that he went to a bad situation in Chicago”. But, he said, if Fields can’t turn things around very quickly, “He’s gonna be in a new situation every year or two”.
With the Steelers, Fields is working with the second-team offense behind Russell Wilson. Most believe his chances of winning the starting job are slim to none, but he could contribute situationally. OTA reports must come with a word of caution, but he is not impressing so far.
If he can’t look the part in Pittsburgh, then Fields is going to be looking at his fourth different head coach on his third different team come 2025 and will be doing so while looking for a backup job. You can blame the Bears for many things as part of his career. But a franchise quarterback compensates for a lot, as well, and the number of jobs lost in the past three years is a part of Fields’ resume.
