LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The 2023 season will be filled with grand opportunities for Bears quarterback Justin Fields. If the 24-year-old takes the necessary steps forward this fall, he'll find himself cemented as the franchise quarterback Chicago has long craved and on the rise to challenge for the label of "best quarterback in the NFC."
Fields also has the chance to finally give the Bears the upper hand in their rivalry with the Green Bay Packers -- one that has been relatively one-sided for the better part of 30 years.
With Aaron Rodgers done treating the Bears like a doormat, Fields and the Bears can start to flip the script in the NFL's most storied rivalry Sunday, when quarterback Jordan Love leads the Packers into Soldier Field for the season opener.
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Fields is aware of the Packers' recent dominance in the rivalry. Led by Rodgers, the Packers have won 17 of the past 20 meetings between the two teams. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is a perfect 8-0 against the Bears.
While Fields understands the magnitude of the Bears-Packers rivalry and the opportunity ahead, he doesn't find motivation in the rivalry debris Rodgers left behind.
"Of course, it’s a big rivalry, but it’s just Game 1," Fields said Wednesday at Halas Hall. "It’s the most important game of the season, so I’m not really looking back towards history. I’m looking toward now. Like I said before, we’ve got a different team this year. Last year, that was last year, so it’s a different year. But yeah, I mean, we don’t really care what happened in the past. That doesn’t affect what’s gonna happen on Sunday. We’re just looking to go out there, play our best, and put our best foot forward."
Fields is unbothered by the past. He has previously said that the Bears' laundry list of previous quarterback failures doesn't impact his desire to be great. His needle does move based on things he can't control.
But while the third-year quarterback is laser-focused on the controllables, head coach Matt Eberflus must walk the line between stressing the importance of a rivalry and keeping perspective on a 17-game season.
"I think you have to state what it is. I mean, it’s a heck of a rivalry. Right?" Eberflus said Wednesday. "It’s the best rivalry in football. So you’ve got to state that. That’s a fact. The other thing is this is one game. This is the only game we can control. And we control one play at a time."
Yes, it's only one game. But it's the first game of a post-Rodgers era, an opening the Bears and their fans have long craved.
Whatever happens Sunday, win or lose, the overreaction will be stark. A Bears win, especially one in which Fields dominates, will pour kerosene on the Bears excitement fire sweeping the city. A loss in which Love outplays Fields, and Chicago will have a black cloud hanging over it Monday.
BEARS ANALYSIS
Last season, Fields went 7-for-11 for 70 yards in a Week 2 loss at Lambeau Field. Eleven weeks later, he authored the best passing game of the season in the rematch, going 20-for-25 for 254 yards.
When the game ended in another Packers win, Fields and Rodgers met at midfield and exchanged pleasantries. Like two ships passing in the night, the old guard of the NFC North and the potential heir to the throne shook hands and went their separate ways, writing the final line in what has been a brutal 15-year rivalry chapter for the Bears.
On Sunday, a new chapter begins. One where Fields has a chance to do what Rodgers did -- torment a division rival for a decade and force a future quarterback to answer questions about their plan to change the tide he created.