QB Carousel In Chicago

I know… back to back Justin Fields articles. I need to grow up and get a life. It’s just that this situation is so fascinating to me. Justin Fields will not be the week one starter which is fine… kinda. There’s really 3 scenarios on how this situation should play out. So I’m going to give them to you.

Scenario #1: Justin Fields starts week 1 because he’s the best quarterback on the Chicago Bears roster. Many believe that Justin Fields is no doubt the best quarterback on this roster. If he is he should be starting week 1. I’m still very up in the air on if he’s the best overall quarterback on the roster. A lot goes into being a QB. It’s more than saying hike and throwing the ball. It’s the reason it’s the most important position in football in today’s game. Now if you ask me which QB gives our team it’s best chance to win I’m gonna rock with Justin Fields strictly on his play making ability. Aaron Donald is begging for Andy Dalton week 1. The Rams are dominating my Bears week 1 no matter who is starting, but I’m sure Donald would much rather chase after Andy Dalton than Justin Fields with 4.4 speed. Fields legs are an absolute weapon and make the offense much more versatile. The run game will undoubtedly improve with Justin Fields in the ball game. Last year in games that Mitch Trubisky started the Bears averaged 143 rushing yards a game on the ground. That was because Mitch was a threat in the run game so defenses had to key in on Trubisky's legs opening up the offense for stud running back David Montgomery. Imagine what Montgomery can do in an offense where Fields is under center. The best thing about Fields is he's a pass first QB. He can also just make scary plays with his legs. Dalton on the other hand is far from it. He's more mobile than Nick Foles which isn't hard by any means. But he's not a mobile outside the pocket QB. In games that Nick Foles started the Bears averaged 53 yards per game on the ground. I'm not saying it will be as bad with Dalton but don't expect a threat of a run game from Chicago when Dalton is under center. So scenario #1 I’m completely cool with. Lots of guys learned the hard way, tossed into the fire and made what you can out of it.

Scenario #2: Justin Fields gets moved to QB #3 and you completely take away any chance of Fields getting hurt in 2021 and let him learn your system. No chance of stunting his play because there isn’t a chance he plays. Not exactly the biggest fan of this one at all, but it has some positives to it. He gets a full year to completely learn the playbook better and study the NFL game more. I don’t think he needs that much time personally. I think Fields' talent can carry his smarts for some time. Look at Mahomes. He said that he’s just now learning how to read a defense after he just won an MVP and a Super Bowl MVP back in 2019. No I’m not saying Justin Fields is the next Patrick Mahomes, I’m just using him as an example. Mahomes is so talented that he didn’t need to be the smartest QB on the field. He just needed to ball out. Another nice thing about scenario #2 is you take no risk at injury for the ‘21 season which some might say is dumb because you can’t play scared. Which I agree with, but a whole year of having a healthier and smarter QB doesn’t sound bad. We’ve also seen numerous times how an injury can affect a QB early in his career. I'm against scenario #2 but to some Bears fans this would be the absolute end of the world to them. Which it would not be by any means.

Scenario #3: Andy Dalton starts, Justin Fields comes off the bench. The current Bears situation. This scenario upsets me a lot to be honest. Maybe even a little bit more than scenario #2 strictly because of the lack of clarity. With this scenario Matt Nagy is saying that Justin Fields is not ready to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Which is weird, because I guarantee you Fields will all of the sudden be NFL ready once Andy Dalton struggles or gets injured. Now maybe we got this all wrong. Maybe Nagy thinks Fields is NFL ready, but Andy gives us a better chance of winning. Now I just can’t see that being correct. Andy Dalton will be nothing more than a game manager for the Bears. So, if Justin is ready to play once Andy struggles or gets injured then why not put him in there now? If you think he would be ready to step on that field if things got bad then do it now. If you don’t think he’s ready to step on that field when things go bad then change it to scenario #2 and call 2021 a wash. People would be livid because we would get absolutely no Justin Fields action in ‘21 but they’d get over it next year.

The moral of the story is Nagy needs to give us some clarity. If Fields is ready enough to be on the field once things go bad then what’s the wait for? If he’s not ready then why are we taking the risk of him going out there at all? My guess is Justin Fields is ready to be on that field and should be week one. As of right now he won’t be. Chicago Bears fans will be built up every single week to see that camera shot. You know the camera shot I'm talking about too. Where the game is going bad for us. Andy is struggling, we're not completely out of the game, and we need a spark. The camera pans over to Justin Fields with his helmet on and he's warming up on the sidelines. And in comes the future of the Chicago Bears. So until then, Bear Down.