{"id":134390,"date":"2022-07-27T14:20:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T18:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=134390"},"modified":"2022-07-27T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T01:22:42","slug":"chicago-bears-biggest-week-1-question-answered-ahead-of-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/07\/27\/chicago-bears-biggest-week-1-question-answered-ahead-of-training-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears&#8217; Biggest Week 1 Question Answered Ahead of Training Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Bears opened training camp on July 27 along with the rest of the NFL and have already answered their biggest question. At this time last season, there were a ton of questions surrounding a lame-duck regime. This season there are still questions about the new regime. They have had an uncomfortable number of arrests for rookie general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/chicago\/bears\/ryan-poles-bears-arrests-bothered-me-lot\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Poles<\/a>, as one example.<\/p>\n<p>But they have already given themselves a headstart over their predecessors with one singular decision that they will see mirrored by their Week 1 opponent.<\/p>\n<h2>Bears&#8217; Biggest Training Camp Question Being Answered a Head Start<\/h2>\n<h3>Setting the Field<\/h3>\n<p>Second-year Bears quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FielJu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Fields<\/a> enters his sophomore campaign as the unquestioned starter. That makes sense for the team that traded up to take him 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. That investment did not translate into them putting Fields in the best position to win in his first season.<\/p>\n<p>Fields has spoken of how different this camp is for him and the team compared to last year under the last regime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It means a lot to me, just me being the quarterback of our team, I\u2019m the leader. These guys need to see how hard I work, what I do on and off the field, and I need these guys to follow me, and just play hard. As long as I show them, which I think they do know, how hard I work and what I do to prepare and stuff like that, it\u2019s going to follow with everyone behind me.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/chicago\/bears\/justin-fields-already-feels-more-comfortable-bears-training-camp\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">h\/t Alex Shapiro\/NBC Sports Chicago<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>There have been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/05\/11\/changing-perceptions-harder-than-roster-for-chicago-bears\/\" target=\"_self\">questions about Poles\u2019 commitment<\/a> to Fields.<\/p>\n<p>A pair of last-minute offensive line signings show that it wasn\u2019t all smoke at the least. And that the Bears know they need more on the optimistic end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Dg45ReQqPh\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/07\/24\/chicago-bears-send-strong-message-michael-schofield-workout\/\" target=\"_self\">Michael Schofield Workout Sends Strong Message on State of Bears OL<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Michael Schofield Workout Sends Strong Message on State of Bears OL&#8221; &#8212; Last Word on Pro Football\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/07\/24\/chicago-bears-send-strong-message-michael-schofield-workout\/embed\/#?secret=YsYVfvpTIY#?secret=Dg45ReQqPh\" data-secret=\"Dg45ReQqPh\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>They are still relying on bargain-brand wide receivers until the group proves otherwise outside of Darnell Mooney. But Fields\u2019 confidence and what the Bears hope is an improved offensive line could mean more of a leap than expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs long as the offensive line gives him some time, he\u2019ll do OK this year,\u201d Fields\u2019 former teammate, Jason Peters, said, \u201cOnce he gets that offensive line set, that guy\u2019s going to be special because he can throw, he can run, he can make all the plays he needs to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bears will certainly need Fields to play up to the best of his ability this coming season. Not only to win games. But also to determine if he is their quarterback of the future.<\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;25541&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h3>The Future is Now<\/h3>\n<p>Like the Bears, the San Francisco 49ers have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kvrr.com\/2022\/07\/26\/trey-lance-named-qb1-on-first-day-of-49ers-training-camp\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decided on their quarterback<\/a> opting to begin the season with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LancTr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trey Lance<\/a> under center. Lance appeared in six games last season drawing two starts and finishing with a 1-1 record for the 10-7 49ers. San Francisco drafted Lance with the third-overall selection last year. But he wound up sitting behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GaroJi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lance did not play when the two teams met in Week 8 of last season, a 33-22 49ers victory.<\/p>\n<p>That could level the playing field somewhat in the Bears\u2019 favor if Lance struggles due to inexperience. If they can get the new campaign and regime started off on the right foot with a win, it could set a more positive tone than has been prevalent to this point in the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Bears have already given themselves a headstart over their predecessors with one singular decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2879,"featured_media":134395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23],"tags":[7657,7544,6990,7059],"class_list":["post-134390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-bears","tag-bears-featured","tag-chicago-bears-roster","tag-justin-fields","tag-trey-lance"],"modified_by":"Josh Buckhalter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}