Bears quarterback Justin Fields has completed 23 of 45 passes for 297 yards, with two touchdowns and four interceptions. For the entire season.
It’s important to make clear that those numbers are for all three games of this season, because they could easily be mistaken for a quarterback’s numbers from one game -- and not even a particularly good game.
There have already been 39 games this season in which a quarterback completed more than 23 passes.
There have been 11 games this season in which a quarterback threw more than 45 passes.
There have been 20 games this season in which a quarterback has gained more than 297 passing yards.
There have been 17 games this season in which a quarterback has throw more than two touchdown passes.
There haven’t been any games this season in which a quarterback threw more than four interceptions, so at least Fields has that going for him.
The Bears’ passing offense is an enormous outlier, dead last in every major statistic. But they’re not just an outlier in the advanced passing environment of 2022, when quarterbacks routinely dwarf the passing records of old.
Fields is on pace to throw just 255 passes in 17 games. In NFL history, the fewest passes ever thrown by a quarterback who started 16 games was 328 by David Whitehurst of the 1978 Packers.
NFL passing offenses have improved so much that it’s hard to believe any quarterback today could have numbers that would have been awful even by 1978 standards. But that’s the kind of season Fields is having.