The Bears shocked the world after they moved up 9 spots to draft QB Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick. But the Bears had signed veteran QB Andy Dalton and named him QB1 ahead of the season. Thus when asked who will start week 1, Matt Nagy had a cryptic response.
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QB Justin Fields was arguably the 2nd best QB in the draft. So when he fell out of the top 10, the Bears got a steal in former Ohio State Buckeyes alum. Fields lit up the college football scene during his 2 years at Ohio State.
Fields led the Buckeyes to 2 consecutive CFP appearances in 2019 and 2020, the latter of which ended with a national championship appearance. The 2 time Big 10 offensive player of the year had arguably his best game in the CFP semi-final against No. 1 overall pick Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence. So the Bears certainly hope Justin Fields will be their QB of the future for many years to come
But whether he will be a week 1 starter is still up in the air. And Matt Nagy had an answer to the question.
Bears HC Matt Nagy said Justin Fields will know when his time comes.
“There’s some observations from all of us as coaches every single day, and just like we would tell any quarterback, when you come in here, you do everything you can to be the best quarterback that you could be,” Nagy said, via NBCSportsChicago.com. “Whether it’s in the meeting room or whether it’s in practice, and everything else will take care of itself.”
“All of those guys are going to do it. And then we just got to decide then when we get to that point, how is he developing and how everybody is doing, and really keeping it as honest as possible with all of those guys. Then when the time is right, I promise you every single person will know including Justin when it’s the right time, and that’s naturally how it happens.”
Nagy added that Justin was fortunate to have 2 veteran Qb’s in Andy Dalton and Nick Foles to guide him into the league.
Matt Nagy was in a similar situation in 2017 when the Kansas City Chiefs drafted QB Patrick Mahomes despite having Alex Smith on the roster. Alex Smith was the starter for the entirety of the 2017 season, and Patrick Mahomes sat behind and learn’t the system before taking over in 2018. Nagy departed the Chiefs organization at the end of 2017.
The Chicago Bears have built a horrible stereotype for being a graveyard for QB careers. But after having learn’t Mfrom the Mitchell Trubisky experiment, Nagy and G Ryan Pace will have a blueprint to compare and help develop Fields into his MVP-like potential. When Fields starts next season will be very interesting to see.
