Is Justin Fields about to break the Bears’ ‘Sid Luckman’ Curse?

Since Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman retired from the NFL following the 1950 NFL season, the Chicago Bears have gone through a number of quarterback changes, but haven’t been able to find or develop a quarterback that compares in any way to Luckman’s elite stature in their franchise’s long history.

Is it fair to say that the Bears have been cursed by Sid Luckman in similar fashion to the Bobby Layne curse that Lions fans have gone through over the past seven decades?

The Bears have only won two NFL championships since Luckman left (1963, Super Bowl XX), while the Lions has only won one playoff game since Layne left after Detroit won the 1957 NFL Championship (1991). But, who were their quarterbacks?

How about Billy Wade (2x Pro Bowl selection; 40-43-2 record as a starter in 13 seasons), Jim McMahon (1985 Pro Bowl selection; injury prone career), and Erik Kramer? (31-36 record as a starter; played only one full NFL season in 1995)

The quarterback position has to be the toughest to fill in the NFL. And the Bears have been pretty poor on getting it right throughout their history.

Fields the savior?

Until now.

Justin Fields has stepped out of the shadows in 2022 to highlight to the league why Chicago traded up to draft him out of college. He’s without doubt their franchise QB for the next decade.  

The Bears have struggled once again this season. But they’re finally in a position where they are catering the offense to fit Field’s strengths.

His elite rushing ability, combined with an ever improving passing game, is helping him to develop into a star quarterback. Infact, many are calling him the most athletic QB in the league already, with potential MVP credentials for the future.

Fields became the first NFL quarterback to rush for 140 yards in consecutive games and the first in the Super Bowl era to have multiple rushing touchdowns of over 60 yards.

Before 2022, no QB in NFL history ever had three 50-yard rush touchdowns over an entire career. Fields accomplished that feat in less than a month, with his score against the Green Bay Packers.

And despite being injured for the Bears’ season finale against the Vikings, Fields finishes just 64 yards of the single-season rushing record for a QB. Remember, this was just year two of his NFL career, playing in only 15 games.

At this point, Fields seems by far the best quarterback from the 2021 NFL draft, certainly when compared to those taken ahead of him. Trevor Lawrence is currently on a stunning stretch with the Jaguars, but has struggled in patches of the season.

Zach Wilson has been woeful in the league so far, while Trey Lance has been injured for almost the entirety of his first year as a starter.

Not only is Fields a top 10 QB right now, he has the potential, and the foundations to only get better. The Bears currently hold the second overall selection in the upcoming 2023 NFL Draft. Given the number of QB-hungry teams looking to trade into the top five in April, the Bears have the potential to assemble a war chest of picks to build around their own quarterback for next season.

Imagine what Fields could do fully fit with an improved roster around him in 2023.

How the Bears compare to other franchises with QB struggles

When it comes to replacing legendary quarterbacks, the Lions and Bears historically haven’t been the only ones to come up short.

In the AFC East, the Dolphins haven’t found their next version of Dan Marino in over two decades and the Jets are still looking for their new version of “Broadway” Joe Namath.

Houston hasn’t found an elite signal caller since Warren Moon left for Minnesota and Washington hasn’t had an MVP caliber quarterback since Joe Theismann’s campaign in 1983.

But, it has been promising to see the Detroit Lions modernizing their offense since Matthew Stafford arrived in 2009 and Jared Goff has certainly begun to turn heads with a very promising year this season with Detroit chasing their first postseason berth in six years.

The Chicago Bears need to take a page from the Lions playbook if they want to chase similar success, which could put Justin Fields’ NFL future in jeopardy despite his struggles early on after his dominant career at Ohio State.

Before leaving the Bears following the 1958 NFL season, Hall of Fame quarterback and placekicker George Blanda said that the game of pro football had passed by his Hall of Fame head coach/owner George Halas because he refused to keep up with the rest of the league.

It is up to head coach Matt Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles to pull the Chicago Bears out of the dark ages of smash-mouth football and into the new pass heavy world of the current NFL, in which Sid Luckman introduced to the Windy City during his 12-year career with the Bears.