With Matt Nagy still running the Bears, he will continue to center his offense around Justin Fields. This comes days after the fourth-year HC did not answer a question regarding Fields’ status as Chicago’s QB1 when healthy.
Although Andy Dalton played well in relief of Fields against the Ravens and topped 300 yards against the Lions in Thursday’s narrow win, the Bears will go back to Fields — when he recovers from his rib injury.
[RELATED: Bears Unlikely To Fire Nagy During Season]
Though Nagy confirmed Friday that Fields will replace Dalton and be the Bears’ starter for the rest of the season, when he is able, the rookie quarterback is dealing with cracked ribs. It is unclear when Fields will return, but the rib trouble is not believed to be especially serious. Still, it would certainly make sense if Chicago was cautious with its first-round pick.
The Fields-Nagy-Bill Lazor partnership has not gone too well, with the rookie struggling and ranking last (among qualified quarterbacks) in Total QBR. The Ohio State product has completed 58% of his passes and holds a 4-to-8 TD-INT ratio. The Bears rank 29th in scoring offense and 31st in total yards, increasing the temperature on Nagy’s hot seat.
During his most recent full-game performance, however, Fields averaged 10 yards per attempt and totaled seven 15-plus-yard completions — tied for the most by a Bears quarterback in the past 15 years. While Fields was less effective against the Ravens in Week 11, the 4-7 Bears plan to give their prized prospect more work down the stretch.
This is an opportunity for Nagy to demonstrate he is a competent, winning, HC when working with a veteran QB who isn’t quite the statue Nick Foles is. I have my doubts.
Translation: I’m going to start the younger QB that my future is hitched onto in a last-ditch effort to save my job…
Makes sense, tanking for draft place is all they’re after. Dalton is the better qb but other than the lions, they’re not trying to beat anyone at this point. Play the bad qb for now.
Giants have their first rounder this year from the Fields trade.
your joking.
Dude, the Giants own their draft pick in 2022. I don’t think they are going to tank purposely so the Giants get a top 5 pick
Except they traded 2022 1st in the deal with the Giants…..NYG stand to have two top 5 picks.
Why would they tank when doing so only helps the NY Giants?
This is Nagy explaining to the media that he has been told to start Justin Fields when he’s healthy. Nagy isn’t making a single decision down the stretch without asking for permission first…
Honest Translation: I’m going to ruin this kid in a desperate attempt to save my job and the organization is going to allow this because they don’t fire coaches in the middle of the season.
Nagy may be bad, but Fields clearly is not ready. When Nagy said that he wasn’t, fans called for his head. Now that Fields is playing (and not well), people blame Nagy for starting him. Maybe we should have believed him when he said that Dalton was the starter at the beginning of the year.
Nagy or no Nagy, Fields certainly does not look anywhere near an NFL starter. Dalton should be finishing the year out, especially with no pick to hurt in the first round. At the very least, it won’t get Fields hurt before he ever profiles as an NFL starter. I don’t really think that Fields will ever be a top QB, but it doesn’t make sense to rush him in after committing so heavily in the offseason to being patient-and especially after Dalton has played considerably better.
GMs continually draft QBs in the first round with no real plan to provide OL support then wonder why they don’t get results. The Bears, Eagles, Dolphins, Jets and Jags are just the recent teams to deceive themselves into thinking a quick fix at QB is a solution.
I don’t at all get where you think Fields doesn’t measure up. Read Brad Biggs in the Chicago Tribune. He has posted numerous post game quotes all season from scouts around the league who think with a decent O-line and better targets, he has the talent to be great. He’s made some spectacular throws this year. I think if he had the talent and system and an OC as strong as Josh McDaniels, he’d be doing everything and more than Mac Jones right now.
Fields’ footwork, hesitancy in reading downfield coverages, and inability to read presnap are all reasons that I’m not high on him. I don’t think it’s time to pull the plug by any means, because it is early, but I just don’t see what you do, rondon. We all would like to simply dump it on Nagy and Lazor, but it’s usually not all on one party. I’m sure Lazor and/or Nagy have some plays on their end that they’d like to run but can’t. I mean, McDaniels really didn’t do as well with a mobile QB last year.
Like I said, I don’t believe that pulling the plug right now or anything, but Dalton is clearly the better starter right now. I don’t think Fields is at the stage right now where experience is the only thing he needs. I think he needs at least another offseason and, like you said, a few more players in his supporting cast. But right now, I think he’s still in the learning stage. Nagy might be holding him back, but I just don’t think Fields is ready right now after watching him.
I can’t wholly disagree with your points… yet. It’s still too early… But I think a lot of his “weaknesses” right now come from literally having so little time. He’s in the top 3 most sacked QBs in the entire league. Granted, some of those sacks have been on him, but there’s a dearth of talent across that whole offense and a confused, paint by numbers offense that after 4 years, Nagy STILL hasn’t got a handle on. If he’s in the same place a year from now, even with a new coach and GM, I’ll be way more inclined to agree with ya. We’ll see…
@rondon, Brad Biggs talks like he’s high most of the time. Sometimes he doesn’t make sense so I wouldn’t rely on his opinion all the time. If not high, then his brain is just mostly fat and he’s pulling his talking points out of his butt.
Fields isn’t ready, but if you wanna ask me, Fields was the wrong choice. He will fail in the NFL and it will take him 2-3 years for him to flame out and find himself in a watering hole somewhere in Georgia, flipping burgers.
It was the scouts quoted by him I was referring to. So they don’t know what they’re talking about either? Right.