Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy tried to temper Justin Fields-mania on Monday, reiterating that veteran Andy Dalton remains the team’s starting quarterback in Week 1.
Nagy’s assertion came in the aftermath of Fields’ performance Saturday in the Bears’ opening preseason win over Miami. Fields, the No. 11 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, went 14-for-20 with 142 yards and a touchdown. Fields also rushed five times for 33 yards and a score.
Conversely, Dalton played just two series – both resulting in punts — and finished 2-for-4 for 18 yards.
“I think Andy had six plays. It’s hard to say much good or bad about that with six plays,” Nagy said. “We’re going to get him some more snaps this coming preseason game. And with Justin, I go back to what I said too, we want to be able to see live plays, live situations, he got that. The only thing he can do is to continue doing that and we have to make sure that plan allows us to evaluate how well he does knowing those circumstances. Ultimately, in the end, whatever is best for the Chicago Bears is in the end what we’re going to do.”
Nagy said all the players in the locker room are bought into the process and have accepted Dalton as the starter.
“We knew going into this that in this situation, any time there’s something that goes wrong for a guy like Andy in this situation, that that’s going to be there if Justin’s playing well. But no, this is something that we’ve planned for, prepared for, and again, Justin understands all of this, and that’s what I love about him,” Nagy said. “He understands the plan. He understands the process. They all do. We asked him to go out and play well on game day live.”
The Bears host the Buffalo Bills on Saturday. They’ll see their former starting QB, Mitchell Trubisky, whom the Bills signed in the offseason to back up Josh Allen.
–Field Level Media