'He has to come in with that juice': Mooney wants to Fields to be a vocal leader
Justin Fields is locked in.
He has to be. NFL quarterbacks have a lot of information in their heads. Fields' job is to know what every player is doing on any given play. He's directing everyone on the offense, in addition to actually handling the snap and throwing the football.
The 24-year-old QB is also not a demonstrative person by nature. But by virtue of being the quarterback and leader on the Bears, when things get tough the offense is going to look toward him for energy.
Things were tough Wednesday during a training camp practice at Halas Hall. The offense struggled mightily, even against the second-team defense. The defensive players were making plays and making sure the offensive guys knew about it.
Jaquan Brisker was chirping at receivers. Eddie Jackson was yelling from the far sideline. The defense was having a party over there. On the opposite side, the offense was quiet as a library.
"I just want to see our guys chirp back at them," Fields said after practice. "When we have a good play, even every little win, we chirp back at them and then it's just that competitive spirit going back and forth between us."
Put the on-field struggles of the offense aside - it's a long training camp. Wednesday was only one day of many.
Alarm bells shouldn't start ringing unless the offense struggles for multiple days. This could be a sign of things to come, or it could be the natural ebb and flow of training camp. Time will tell.
But the difference in energy - or lack of it - stood out as much as the difference in success on the field.
"When I saw them walking back to the huddle, to me it doesn't matter," offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "Whatever the circumstance is we all stick together, we stay together and we find a way to dig out of whatever it is."
Wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who is good friends with Fields and by all accounts a great teammate, said he knows exactly where the energy has to come from.
"It starts, one, with the quarterback," Mooney said. "I mean, he has to come in the huddle, bring confidence in the huddle."
Which brings things back to Fields being locked in. There's a lot going on in a QB's head. Fields is a level-headed person. But, sometimes, his teammates need to see that fire in him. The most exciting moments last season were driven by Fields, both his on-play successes and his swagger after big plays.
"He has to understand that he is our leader and our guy, so we go as far as he goes, and he has to come in with that juice," Mooney said.
Those words coming from Mooney must carry weight for Fields. Mooney said he will sometimes go up to Fields and knock him on the head or get in his face just to get the QB to break a smile and stop being so serious all the time.
Ultimately, the Bears' defenders are still their teammates. If Brisker has to be the pregame hype man, that's cool too. But the offense is going to follow the lead of its QB.
On Wednesday, Fields pulled the offense to the side at the end of practice.
"I just talked to the guys after practice," Fields said. "Every little win that we have on the field we just need to have energy about it because that energy is contagious."