The Bears need to play quarterback Justin Fields the second he’s ready.
The Bears need to play quarterback Justin Fields the second he’s ready. Instead, coach Matt Nagy is tying the rookie’s playing time to the play of Andy Dalton, whose last winning season as a starter came when Fields was a high school sophomore. In reiterating on Tuesday that Dalton will be the Week 1 starter against the Rams, Nagy made a subtle tweak to the team’s messaging, which had been otherwise consistent since they traded up to draft the Ohio State rookie. Dalton’s play will impact when Fields plays during the regular season, Nagy said. That makes sense — the Bears are starting Dalton because they think he gives their veteran-heavy roster the best chance to win in Week 1 — but Nagy finally said out loud what had been long presumed: Dalton will have to play well to keep the job. That wasn’t necessarily the case a month ago. Fields is developing quickly and the Bears believe he would be ready if called upon. “Big-picture, when we talked about this from the very start, we said: ‘Whoever is going to be best for the Chicago Bears,” Nagy said. “And that’s going to obviously deal with production and wins, right? So when you look at this thing you want to make sure we all support each other with one common goal to win, and offensively to score touchdowns.
