The Chicago Bears have gotten off to an awful start to the 2023 NFL season, as the team is 0-2 with losses to the Green Bay Packers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have the second-worst point differential in the NFC, and in what seems to be a perpetual issue for the Bears, the team’s offense has been especially rough. There have been a total of four designed runs for third-year signal caller Justin Fields, while the passing game has been a mess, too.
Fields spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon and expressed that he “wasn’t necessarily playing my game” against the Bucs, saying that he felt “robotic and not playing like myself.” He promised to change things on Sunday before throwing in an interesting line: “That includes thinking less and just going out there and playing off of instincts, rather than just so much info in my head, data in my head, and literally just playing football.”
After getting asked what was causing him to think too much, Fields did not hold back.
Justin Fields didn’t hold back.
Must watch. I love it. pic.twitter.com/bLMrdGXpKP
— Dave (@dave_bfr) September 20, 2023
“Could be coaching, I think,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it makes it … they’re doing their job when they’re giving me what to look at, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, I can’t be thinking about that when the game comes. I prepare myself throughout the week, and when the game comes, it’s time to play free at that point. Just thinking less and playing more.”
After making clear that he doesn’t think there are “too many coaching voices,” Fields talked about getting fed too much info and how a player will think about these things while they’re playing.
“It doesn’t let you play like yourself,” he said. “You’re trying to process so much information to where it’s, like, if I just simplify it in my mind, I would have did this. I saw a few plays on Sunday to where, if I was playing like my old self, we would have had a positive play. There would have been a few more third-down conversions. I think that’s the biggest thing for me, is just playing the game how I know how to play it, how I’ve been playing it my whole life. So, that’s what I gotta get back to doing.”
The Bears will travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs on Sunday.