Lincicome: While we wait for signs of growth from Fields, Rodgers still owns Bears

Not yet, young man. Not soon. Maybe never.

Justin Fields may eventually find an opposing quarterback that he is better than, but with Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger ahead, old men at the game, as is Aaron Rodgers, Fields is still just a fresh intern making the rounds.

Using variable statistics, Fields is the worst quarterback in the NFL. Using experienced eyesight, even without binoculars, Fields is the worst quarterback, not only in the NFL, but probably on his own team.

Were he not the savior and redeemer, he would be benched by now. He nibbles at success but has yet to take a bull bite. Fields has gone from being savior and redeemer to, "Don't forget. He's just a rookie."

This is as it should be, I suppose, but every game since the disaster in Cleveland Fields has wallowed in futility, patchy at best and awful at most, responsible for neither the wins nor Sunday's loss. He is a quarterback who makes no difference.

His current coach Matt Nagy insists on saying that Fields shows growth. If so, it is root vegetable growth, all unseen and taken on faith.

What was expected, hoped for more likely, was that Fields would hold his own with Rodgers, with the rival Packers. Comparisons were just too easy to make. Rodgers is what the Bears want their quarterback to be and Kyle Orton is what the Bears have.

Remember Orton? That's where Rodgers started in his dominance of the Bears. Orton to Cutler to Glennon to Trubisky to Foles, and maybe some others that don't come to mind, a littered field of forgettables, and now Fields is picking up where they left off.

I have been reminded that upon seeing Fields for the first time I concluded that he had as much chance of being an NFL quarterback as a lamp post. While I don't remember that assessment, I will stick by it.

You work with the evidence you have and there, against the team the Bears must find a way to beat, were the two of them, Rodgers and Fields, yesterday and tomorrow, the result and the wish.

There was the sense of the historic to the game, mainly because of Rodgers's history rather than real evidence of Field's emergence, the football equivalent of Billy the Kid facing Wyatt Earp or, in a sports sense, maybe the young Larry Holmes and the antique Muhammad Ali, with Ali winning this time.

To know how it will turn out for Fields is no easier now than it was knowing then how it would turn out for Rodgers, who had to wait behind Brett Favre. Rodgers would fashion a career to be measured against established standards like the man he replaced, like Brady and Drew Brees and either of two Mannings.

Who are Fields' contemporaries, Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Jared Goff?

While Rodgers may be the football equivalent of a lingering guest who won't leave or help with the dishes, he is still worth the attention, still capable of doing what is necessary.

The difference between Rodgers and Fields was a confident master doing the possible and an overmatched apprentice with a Panic Attack offense.

It was the difference between lighting and erosion. Early and later.

There is almost a careless insolence to Rodgers, not so much disrespect for his opponent as a raw will to not lose, ignoring his out of character "I own you!" end zone antics after scoring.

As Fields chipped and chopped in the drive that an end zone interference call gave the early and only lead to the Bears, Rodgers sat unconcerned on the Green Bay bench, ready for what he had to do next, whatever was needed.

To imagine Fields to be as strong, as effective and as accomplished as Rodgers in the year 2025 is to imagine no more than what was expected when the carnival that came with Fields' arrival began.

Having seen Fields for 4½ games, and now on the same field as a reigning master, I can concede that Fields may have a better chance of success than a lamppost.

Maybe he is more like a table lamp, casting his own light if still not a very long shadow.