Bears quarterback Andy Dalton did not tear his ACL, coach Matt Nagy said Monday morning. The team is awaiting further testing before being able to decide whether he or rookie Justin Fields will start, he said.
For the second-straight day, Nagy declined to say whether Dalton would start were he healthy. Nagy claimed that was a scheme-related question; his policy is that he typically does not engage on such questions.
About 10 minutes after his press conference concluded, though, Nagy did something he’s never done before as the Bears coach: he sent a public relations representative to the media room at Halas Hall to say that he’d misheard Monday’s question and that Dalton would be the Bears’ starter were he healthy.
When Nagy was asked the question during the press conference, he actually repeated it — “Andy, if healthy, is he your starter?” — before giving the non-answer.
Nagy is trying to make the Browns guess. The Bears don’t have to submit an injury report for another 48 hours, and it’s in their best interest to entertain the possibility of both Dalton and Fields starting.
Of course, Dalton isn’t healthy.
Dalton hurt his left knee early in the second quarter Sunday when he stepped awkwardly along the Bears sideline after running out of bounds. He tumbled to the ground and then pointed at Fields to get into the game.
Nagy said after the game that the Bears believed he avoided the worst-case scenario of a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He confirmed it Monday. NFL Network said that testing didn’t show ligament damage and speculated that he could have a bone bruise, the result of his femur and tibia banging together. That would likely cost Dalton a couple weeks.
Those signs point toward Fields making his first career start Sunday.
”So what we’ll have to do is we’ll have to be prepared when we find out exactly what is going on with Andy is understand, ‘OK, is he able to go? Is he not able to go?’” Nagy said. “Work through all of that stuff ... because for us, you gotta guy that has been in the league playing quarterback for a long time and you got a guy that has never had an NFL start. So, we’ll have to work through that, which we will.”
Dalton had looked sharp in the home opener, completing 9-of-11 passes for 56 yards and an 11-yard touchdown pass to Allen Robinson on the game’s first drive.
The Bears limited the playbook with the rookie on the field after he spent the week running the scout team.
“I just try to have the mentality of, ‘Play like practice,’” Fields said after the game. “When I’m out on the practice field with my teammates, I try to play every play like a game. And I just try to keep that calm mindset and calm mentality to not make the moment bigger than it is and just go out there and play football. Because that’s all it is, at the end of the day.“
