From the moment Justin Fields was drafted, Bears head coach Matt Nagy made it clear that Andy Dalton would be the team’s starting quarterback. Since then, he’s insisted there is a plan in place to develop Fields by letting him sit on the bench.
But Fields has been putting pressure on Nagy to reconsider the plan, which worked for the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes back when Nagy was in Kansas City. But as much as Nagy wants to recreate what the Chiefs did with Mahomes, all situations are not created equal. Dalton isn’t Alex Smith, who was having an MVP-caliber season in 2017. The Bears probably aren’t going to win 10-11 games and earn a postseason berth. The Bears aren’t the Chiefs, no matter how much Nagy wants them to be.
While Nagy inherited Mitch Trubisky, Fields is the quarterback he handpicked in the draft. If something were to go wrong, Trubisky can’t be the scapegoat anymore. So it’s easy to understand why Nagy is being extra cautious — he doesn’t want to mess up this thing with Fields.
But if Fields continues to impress during the preseason and once again sparks conversation about who should really be starting for Chicago, will there come a point Nagy turns his back on the plan? Nagy can’t keep Fields hidden on the bench because he’s nervous, especially if it comes as a cost to Fields’ development on the field.
With the Bears headed into a bit of a down month ahead of training camp, host Ryan O’Leary (@RyanOLearySMG) and myself (@AlyssaBarbieri) are back and talking all things Bears, including Fields and Chicago’s offensive tackle issues.
You can listen to the latest episode below:
Stay tuned for a new episode of our Bears Wire podcast every week! You can catch all episodes on Apple Podcasts or your podcast service of choice.
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