Success of Poles' rebuild hinges on whether Fields can be the man

On the first day of the Bears' first minicamp under their new Ryan and Matt regime, one change could not have been more glaring.

Never has the cliché, "You can't tell the players without a scorecard," been so true.

Remember when Matt Nagy arrived, Ryan Pace had already been here building his roster for three full seasons.

Nagy inherited one of the best defenses in the NFL, and an offense he was expected to get ready to win immediately.

Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus, on the other hand, have been given leeway and an extended honeymoon to rebuild from the ground up.

The 2022 Bears, as of this moment, will return just six starters on offense and only five defensive starters, if you include Kindle Vildor. Another bundle of key backups are gone and even the punter and top return men have been dumped.

But one thing does remain the same as last year.

Quarterback Justin Fields was the most important acquisition the club had made in decades and the pressure to succeed quickly is immense.

As the Bears build an entire team this year around Fields and the hope he can be a franchise player, the pressure on the new general manager, new coach and player is even greater for him to become the guy.

Fields said his rookie year was a real roller coaster.

"A lot of ups and downs but I definitely learned a lot so you know, thankful for all the experiences and stuff we had to go through," he said. "Last year (I) didn't know if I was going to start, didn't know if I was going to play, so my mindset now is completely different than last year. The stuff last year is just going to make me better."

One subject Fields isn't anxious to reminisce about is whether he felt he was put in the best position to succeed by Pace, Nagy and company.

Of course, the great worry when starting a rookie quarterback immediately is that you may do more harm than good putting a player on the field who isn't ready, particularly at the game's most important position.

Despite the team's poor offense and passing game last year, Fields feels there was benefit to the beating he took.

"A lot, I mean, you can't even - there's not one place you can start, I have a lot more knowledge now," he said. "Going through a whole season you learn a lot of things and you start incorporating things in your routine to make you a better football player."

And Fields believes it was some of the negatives that led to his most important growth.

"You can't really do anything but deal with it and keep fighting for another day and keep working," he said. " ... I saw on a video the other day, just 'failing until you succeed.' No matter how many times I fail, I'm going to just keep going until I eventually succeed."

Eberflus talked after practice Tuesday about how pleased he is with what he's seen so far from Fields.

"He's just soaking it in and taking command of the offense," Eberflus said. "He did an excellent job today. He was in command of the offense, really every play that I saw. He's got a really good confidence in the room."

At the end of the day Fields doesn't really seem any different today than he was the last day of the 2021 season, just a bit more experienced with a lot less talent around him.

How much a new offense and new coaching staff can do to elevate him, and how much Fields can elevate the talent around him will be this year's most important test.

It's one neither Poles, Eberflus nor Fields can afford for him to fail.