The Chicago Bears coaching staff released a quarterback on Wednesday after Justin Fields made comments about the coaching staff.
Fields said coaching by the Bears staff was partly to blame for his struggles in the offense this season. He was especially critical of how he was coached to be a pocket passer.
According to Courtney Cronin with ESPN, Fields spoke to reporters after practice and clarified that his comments were not an indictment of the coaching staff:
“I’m not blaming anything on the coaches. I’m never going to blame anything on coaches, never going to blame anything on my teammates. I will take every – whatever happens in a game – I will take all the blame. I don’t care if it’s a dropped pass and it should have been a pass. Put it on me.”
Justin Fields spoke for 1 minute in the locker room to clarify his comments made earlier today: "I’m not blaming anything on the coaches. I’m never going to blame anything on coaches, never going to blame anything on my teammates. I will take every – whatever happens in a game -…
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) September 20, 2023
Not long after Fields’ comments and reports came out, the Bears' QB2 was let go.
According to Field Yates with ESPN, the Bears released Nathan Peterman.
The Bears have released QB Nathan Peterman.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 20, 2023
Peterman has been on the Bears active roster for the season’s first two games. The Bears have opted to make Tyson Bagent, who survived the 53-man cuts this August, inactive in order to use him as the Bears emergency QB3.
Because of Bagent’s QB3 status, he could not come into a game unless Fields and Peterman were injured.
Hmmm.
There’s going to be plenty of speculation about this cut and, frankly, the timing of the cut.
Many Bears fans and pundits are curious about letting Bagent see some snaps if the season continues to go south. We know what Peterman is, and what he is is a free-agent quarterback who the Bears waived this August in favor of a rookie UDFA coming from a D-II school.
Do the Bears think Bagent is ready for QB2? Are they exploring adding another veteran quarterback to sign as QB2?
And why make the move after Fields felt the need to go back to the press to clarify his comments regarding the coaching staff?
What a day at Halas Hall.
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