Justin Fields says ‘there are going to be failures,’ but the QB stresses patience with the Chicago Bears offense

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields spoke with media members Wednesday at Halas Hall for the first time since training camp started.

Here are four things we learned as the Bears wrapped up their second padded practice and headed into a day off.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus said he thought the offense operated better Wednesday than it did a day earlier, with fewer pre-snap penalties and a better operation during an end-of-half simulation that ended with a Cairo Santos field goal.

But nobody is pretending the offense is where it needs to be. That includes Fields, who acknowledged the slow process of getting the offense running under a new coaching staff with many new players.

“It’s tough because you want to know everything right now,” Fields said. “You want to be successful at everything right now, so it’s really just knowing that there are going to be mistakes, knowing that you’re going to have to learn and just making sure that you don’t make the same mistakes twice. … There are going to be failures but just learning from plays that you maybe messed up on, and of course not doing it again.”

Having that patience — and the awareness to move on quickly from a botched play — is not always easy, however.

“My competitive nature, everybody on the offensive side of the ball’s competitive nature, you’re going to want to be successful every day,” Fields said. “You want to have a successful play every play, but you’ve also got to know when to take your wins and losses.

“That’s one thing I need to do a better job with this year is when the play’s not there, throw the ball away or check it down.”

Eberflus said the Bears still are working out the number of plays he will give to first-teamers in the preseason opener Aug. 13 at Soldier Field, but he wants to “get them a good amount.”

Coaches’ philosophies on preseason playing time vary. But in the Bears staff’s first season, Eberflus said the coaches need to see what they have with such a young roster.

“You have to assess your football team, where it is,” Eberflus said. “And could (the philosophy) be a different spot in years to come? Yeah, I think it can be. I don’t think it’s a hard and fast rule where I’m playing this many plays on the first one, the second one and the third one.”

Fields said the reps against a new defense will be beneficial.

“We practice against our defense every day, so to get to go up against somebody else, that will be good for us,” he said.

Fields’ connection with top wide receiver Darnell Mooney is obvious, but beyond that the quarterback has a mostly new group of targets to get on the same page with this season.

When asked whom he’s building chemistry with, Fields started with St. Brown, who spent four seasons with the Green Bay Packers and knows new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s system. St. Brown had a couple of big catches during Wednesday’s practice but also fumbled after a hit from linebacker Joe Thomas on one of them.

“(St. Brown) has been in this offense for a number of years, so he really doesn’t make mistakes when it comes to running the plays,” Fields said. “He’s definitely always in the right spot and knows where to be on certain plays. He’s a weapon in this offense.”

Fields also mentioned tight end Cole Kmet, who Fields said is “getting better every day.”

Fields said he’s getting a lot of reps with Byron Pringle and Velus Jones Jr., “getting to know how they run their routes and stuff like that.”

When talking about Fields’ leadership Monday, Pringle mentioned the quarterback has been willing to get on his teammates when they make a mistake. He said Fields recently talked to him when he lined up in the wrong formation.

It’s in line with Eberflus’ directive not to walk by mistakes.

“Those guys know not to take it personal because we’re all fighting for the same goal,” Fields said. “We had a talk before camp — we’re going to hold everyone accountable. So if you’re not doing your job or you mess up, you’re going to get harped on. You’re going to get yelled at, but at the end of the day, nobody is going to take it personal.

“Everybody is working to win games, so that’s all that matters. If they take that positively, we can get better with that.”