Somebody might want to tell Matt Nagy that his Chicago Bears traded next year’s first-round draft pick to move up for a franchise quarterback with a dynamic skill set, because he doesn’t seem to be aware.
Despite getting an absolute gift when Justin Fields fell out of the top 10, finding a willing trade partner in the New York Giants, and landing a quarterback prospect who should have gone No. 2 overall at worst, Nagy still wants to die on the hill of the Red Rifle.
Andy Dalton is a serviceable NFL quarterback who can get the job done in a pinch, which is exactly the kind of experience presence every team wants . . . in a backup.
In Fields, the Bears have a quarterback with the talent and skills the storied franchise has never seen, yet it still took an injury to Dalton for Fields to see get anything other than gimmick snaps. The No. 11 overall pick certainly made his share of rookie mistakes against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, but he also missed out on multiple big plays because of dropped passes, and made a play to seal the game that Dalton never could have, breaking a Trey Hendrickson tackle and scrambling for a first down on third-and-long to ice the game.
Even so, Nagy still can’t seem to acknowledge that Fields is not just the future, but the present:
Here is exchange from minutes ago when Nagy was asked if Dalton is healthy, is he the starting QB
MN: "If Andy is healthy, is he your starter? That’s something that I’m not going to get into with scheme."
Reporter "That's not scheme"
MN: "Of course it is, that’s 100% scheme."
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) September 20, 2021
What does that even mean?
Nagy doesn’t seem to know a good thing, even when it falls into his lap. After the Mitchell Trubisky debacle, the Bears’ head coach is getting a rare second chance with a first-round quarterback, but Fields can’t seem to get the same support from the man who gave Trubisky far too much.
At some point, Nagy won’t have a choice. Either Fields will make it unavoidable, Dalton will stay injured, or the Bears will realize the problem and find another head coach.
Until that time comes, the Bears will lose games they didn’t have to lose, and Nagy will keep wasting arguably the biggest steal in this year’s draft.
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