Justin Fields exits game with apparent hand injury vs Vikings

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields went to the locker room with an apparent hand injury against the Minnesota Vikings.

After going to the locker room, Fields was officially questionable to return with a hand injury, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. Undrafted rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent subbed in for Fields.

Pelissero later reported Fields was ruled out for the game.

The Bears (1-4) trailed the Vikings (1-4) 12-6 at halftime. As it stands, Fields is six-of-10 passing for 58 yards, an interception, has eight carries and 46 rushing yards.

Fields led the Bears to a win last week over the Washington Commanders to end the four-game losing streak to start the year.

Going into Sunday’s game against an NFC North rival, Fields had 1,143 yards, 11 touchdowns, five interceptions, a 61.8% completion percentage, 191 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.

There’s been a lot of criticism surrounding Fields and the Bears after the poor start to the season. Losing to the Vikings won’t help, but Fields was happy to get back in the win column last week.

“Just seeing all the hard work pay off, especially getting a dub after everything that’s happened this year,” Fields. “Everything in the media. Everything on the outside. It just feels good when you can say that the hard work paid off.

“So again, I’m proud of everybody in the building. I love everybody on my team. Players, coaches, shoot, everybody upstairs. I might not even know them, but I love y’all. That feeling was, like I said before, a feeling that you never want it to end, and we just got to keep this momentum going and just get ready for Minnesota coming up next week.”

A former Heisman Trophy finalist at Ohio State, Fields came into the league with expectations to finally give the Bears a legitimate franchise quarterback. Chicago selected him with the No. 11 overall pick in 2021.

While with the Buckeyes (22 games), Fields threw for 5,701 yards, 67 touchdowns, nine interceptions, a 68.4% completion percentage, 1,133 rushing yards and 19 rushing touchdowns.

As a member of the Class of 2018, Fields was a five-star recruit out of Kennesaw (Ga.) Harrison, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, the No. 2 quarterback in the class and the No. 2 overall prospect in the class.