Justin Fields said the speed of Chicago’s defense is helping him adjust to the NFL

By now you’ve no doubt seen a few memes or read a few headlines with this Justin Fields quote prominently displayed, “It was actually kind of slow to me, to be honest.”

Fields’ response was to a question about the speed of the NFL now that the Chicago Bears rookie had his first in-game action against another professional team in the Miami Dolphins.

The quote has been taken out of context as a young player acting cocky in his first post game press conference, but that’s not exactly what happened.

Here’s more from from Fields said after that initial headline grabbing quote.

“I think I was expecting it to be a little bit faster but practicing game speed, going at it with my teammates every day, of course, you know, we have a great defense so, me going against them every day, it definitely slowed the game up a little bit for me. I felt comfortable out there, and of course I have room to grow, so I’m just going to try to get better each and every day.”

Fields has already had some scrimmage reps against the Dolphins at Halas Hall, so he’s already seen those guys first hand, but he’s also spent the offseason practicing against his own speedy defenders as Chicago tends to keep the pace up in their practices.

Facing the athletic Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson, Jaylon Johnson, Robert Quinn, Roquan Smith, et al. every day in practice makes for a good transition to the speed of professional football.

Context is important before jumping to conclusions, but this day and age of click-baity headlines and a rush to be first on social media seems to lead to misinformation being shared.

You can hear the question and answer at the 2:10 mark in the video below.