ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Justin Fields took the field in something other than a navy-and-orange game uniform for the first time in his NFL career Friday.
“I think our uniforms are really cool,” he told Steelers reporters. “I like the black and yellow, black and gold. It was awesome to put the new threads on, get in a new stadium, get a new feel.”
The result looked the same as it did when Fields wore a Bears jersey.
There were flashes of brilliance obscured by mistakes. In his Steelers debut, Fields went 5-for-6 for 67 yards and a 113.2 passer rating against the Texans. He was sacked twice.
Worse, he fumbled the snap twice.
“It negated a lot of good things going on in those first couple of drives,” coach Mike Tomlin said after the game.
Fields’ explanation sounded familiar.
“We were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said.
In a span of 18 hours from Friday night into Saturday afternoon, the Bears’ last three first-round quarterbacks made their season debuts.
The Ghosts of Quarterbacks Past were Fields, whom the Bears dealt to the Steelers in March, and Mitch Trubisky, who played the second quarter and the first drive of the third quarter as the Bills’ second-stringer.
On the opposite sideline at Highmark Stadium on Saturday afternoon was the Bears’ Ghost of Quarterback Future, -Caleb Williams.
He played the best of the three, going 4-for-7 — with two dropped passes — for 95 yards and a 101.8 passer rating. Unlike Fields, he neither fumbled nor was sacked.
What made Williams’ performance so intriguing for Bears fans is intrinsically tied to Trubisky and Fields. The former went 29-21 as the Bears’ starter from 2017 to 2020, the latter 10-28 from 2021 to 2023. The Bears won their division once during that span and finished with the worst record in the league once. Neither won a playoff game; in fact, no Bears quarterback has since 2010.
Most telling, neither quarterback earned a second contract from the Bears. The franchise chose to let Trubisky walk after four seasons rather than give him a fifth-year option and preferred to trade Fields rather than have him looming over Williams.
No other team found either worthy of starting. Trubisky is in his second stint as the Bills’ backup after starting only seven times in two seasons with the Steelers. Fields is competing with Russell Wilson for the starting job on that same team, with the former Seahawks star in the lead.
There were times, though, that both were considered the future of the Bears. As a rookie in 2017, Trubisky completed 68% of his preseason passes for 364 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. In 2021, Fields completed 61% of his preseason passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. He ran for 92 yards and a touchdown, too.
Neither matched that kind of production, consistently, in games that mattered.
Williams, appropriately, hesitated to put credence in his own preseason performance.
“There’s an understanding that it is preseason, that everybody’s not going to show their looks and what they would do vs. us, and vice versa,” Williams said. “But it definitely feels good to get out there.”
It felt less good to be Trubisky. He was battered by the Bears’ second-string defense Saturday, going 10-for-18 for 82 yards and a 67.4 passer rating. Trubisky was sacked twice — Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy shared one in the second quarter, and Zacch Pickens got him as the first half ended.
By then, Williams had spent a quarter chatting with his talented new teammates on the sideline. Such help certainly would have made Trubisky and Fields jealous. The former benefitted from a stellar defense but little offensive weaponry. The latter’s offensive roster in his first two seasons might have been the worst in football.
Williams, by contrast, has DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, D’Andre Swift, Cole Kmet and fellow first-round pick Rome Odunze.
After the game, Williams credited those teammates with his development.
“I would tie my progress and support; I would count it to them,” Williams said. “They’ve been great. To get out there and have the confidence that we had out there, it’s only going to get better.
“And we can’t wait.”
The Bears third-year wide receiver gained 34 yards on six carries, including a four-yard touchdown and 19-yard run to culminate a one-week tryout in the backfield. Coach Matt Eberflus did not rule out the experiment continuing next week.
The short-handed starting defense held the Bills to a field goal in two drives, but reserves came up with splash plays in the 33-6 victory.