(Audacy) When the Bears had an uninspiring offensive performance in a loss to the Rams in their season opener, quarterback Andy Dalton's longest pass of the night -- and of his season to date -- came on a short throw to receiver Marquise Goodwin that ended up going for 19 yards. Dalton's passing chart looked like this:
That chart showcases how Dalton didn't have any successful deep passes. In fact, of his 50 pass attempts this season, he hasn't even tried to throw a deep ball down the field — either that or the Bears haven't been willing to let him do so.
The same can't be said about rookie quarterback Justin Fields. One telling statistic proves that to be the case, as the Bears are certainly letting Fields go for it in an effort to get the offense going. As it turns out, no other quarterback in the NFL has thrown a higher percentage of deep balls, which may also be attributed to how the play-calling has changed under the direction of offensive coordinator Bill Lazor in the last two weeks after coach Matt Nagy relinquished those duties.
Dave Kluge of FootballGuys also showed us how that has affected Fields' favorite target to this point -- receiver Darnell Mooney (though it should be noted that the graphic doesn't include the duo's outing this past Sunday).
Lazor's play-calling has opened up the field for Mooney, who exploded for 125 yards in Week 4. That's the highest single-game receiving effort that the Bears have had since Week 3 of the 2020 season.
Listen to Chicago sports talk now on Audacy and shop the latest Bears team gear.
We can't go too crazy for Fields yet though. He ranks last in DVOA -- a statistic that tells us how much value a quarterback has per play -- out of all 32 players with at least 75 pass attempts. He also ranks third-to-last in his PFF grade, ahead of only the Texans' Davis Mills and the Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence, two fellow rookies. For what it's worth, Dalton's passing grade is 72.1 for PFF, while Fields' is a 55.1.
But in terms of pushing the ball down the field and looking to make the offense a little harder to predict, Fields is willing to do just that. We'll see if that leads to some positive change and turns around the 32nd-ranked Bears passing offense — in yards, touchdowns and yards per attempt.
LISTEN on the Audacy app
Sign up and follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
