Patrick Mahomes Says Justin Fields Should Trust His Talent, Instincts amid Struggles

Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes offered some advice for the Chicago Bears struggling young quarterback, Justin Fields, ahead of a Sunday matchup between the teams.

"Trust your talent. Trust your instincts," he told reporters. "He's here for a reason. He's made a lot of big plays happen in the NFL and college, wherever he's been."

"Just trusting in your instincts and then go out there be the player you've always been—just not against us hopefully," he added, laughing.

Fields made more than a few headlines on Wednesday when he told reporters he felt he was playing "robotic" and wasn't "playing like myself" in a 27-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that saw him finish 16-of-29 for 211 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions while rushing for just three yards and a touchdown and taking six sacks.

When asked why he was playing that way, he suggested the team's coaching staff.

"You know, could be coaching, I think," Fields said. "At the end of the day, they are doing their job when they are giving me what to look at, but at the end of the day, I can't be thinking about that when the game comes. I prepare myself throughout the week, and then when the game comes, it's time to play free at that point. Thinking less and playing more."

"I don't think it's too many coaching voices, but I just think when you're fed a lot of information at a point in time and you're trying to think about that info when you're playing, it doesn't let you play like yourself," he continued. "You're trying to process so much information to where it's like, if I just simplify it in my mind, I would have did this."

Fields later addressed those remarks with reporters, saying he was taken out of context and wasn't blaming the coaches for his own struggles and would never blame his coaches or teammates.

"Whenever you hear anything come out of my mouth to where I would blame it on somebody else in this organization, my teammates, never will you hear that," he added. "I just want to clear that up. Just know I need to play better. That's it. Point-blank. That's what it should have been in the first place."

The central point Fields seemed to be making was that he was too focused on coaching points during the heat of the moment in the game, rather than reading and reacting to what was happening in front of him. There's a balance to be struck between understanding the game plan and the coaching points and simply letting your instincts kick in out on the field.

Failing to find that balance in one direction can lead to slower decisions and perhaps the "robotic" play Fields was describing. Failing to find it in the other direction can lead to poor reads and mistakes.

Hence the advice from Mahomes, one of the NFL's most gifted improvisers after the play breaks down. It sounds as though Fields is already apt to heed those words.