Getty Will head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears start Justin Fields or Andy Dalton Week 1?
The wait is over.
Fans of the Chicago Bears finally got to see rookie quarterback Justin Fields in action, and after a wobbly start, he did not disappoint.
In just under two quarters of work, the rookie QB completed 70% of his passes, going 14-of-20 for 142 yards and a touchdown. He also had 33 yards and a score on the ground, exercising good judgment — other than on one play in which he fumbled (Chicago recovered) and neglected to slide. Still, Fields finished with a QB rating of 106.7, and he looked solid overall in his debut.
When he was asked about Fields’ performance after Chicago’s 20-13 preseason win over the Miami Dolphins, Bears coach Matt Nagy couldn’t hide his excitement. But when he was asked if veteran Andy Dalton was still going to be the starter over Fields, Nagy did some impressive verbal gymnastics instead of directly answering the question.
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Nagy Doesn’t Close Door on Fields Starting
When asked if there’s anything Fields can do to win the starting job by Week 1 over Dalton, Nagy said this:
“All I want him to do is make it really hard on all of us,” Nagy said about Fields on August 14. “We have a really good quarterback right now in Justin Fields and we have a really good quarterback in Andy Dalton and a really good quarterback in Nick Foles and that’s all I want them to do, seriously, is … create the best competition and be the best quarterback you can be for the Bears. … Keep stacking days like he had today and understanding that, again in this whole process and this plan as we go, what’s the ultimate goal for us as an offense? Scoring touchdowns, right. So keep leading the team down, keep getting first downs, keep getting touchdowns.”
That’s about as vague a response as you can give — and two top Bears insiders took note. “He didn’t exactly shut the door to a conversation that guarantees to persist,” NBC Sports’ Adam Hoge wrote about Nagy’s response.
Bears insider Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune wrote on August 15 that it was absolutely notable Nagy didn’t automatically defer to Dalton being the starter this time, as he has so often in the past. “Nothing Nagy said ruled out the possibility Fields could replace Dalton before the start of the season,” Biggs wrote.
“Will it happen? The coaches aren’t going to make depth-chart changes based on one performance. Way too much planning has been done to reach this point with them preparing for the third week of practice starting Monday morning. If Fields keeps improving, there will be more meetings, more conversations and more reasons to ask the question.”
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If Dalton Struggles & Fields Doesn’t, the Decision is Made
Dalton played just two series in Chicago’s first preseason game, and he will likely get more playing time in the team’s second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills next week.
Fields will also get more opportunities in each of the remaining preseason games, and if he continues to play well, the calls for him to start over Dalton will become too deafening to ignore.
“Don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t worry about next week, don’t worry about the future. Just worry about today. I thought that Justin did a great job of worrying about today and he played smart football,” Nagy said about Fields after the first preseason game. “He made plays … it is preseason, and we all understand that there’s variables involved in all that. But at the same time, if you go back and look, is he doing what you want him to do? Absolutely.”
The Bears head coach also simply couldn’t hide his own excitement surrounding his rookie QB.
“Everybody here is super excited about the way that he played today,” Nagy added. “We all want the same thing. We understand the buzz. We understand the excitement. That’s why we drafted him, you know what I mean? That’s why we drafted him. But we want to make sure that we continue to go through this thing and we understand the process and this is one game that he came in here. And now the beautiful thing is, we get to get more practices in and get to see how he comes back next week against Buffalo, and he’s going to have another chance.”
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