The moment that Bears fans, and fans of the NFL in general, is finally here. Head coach Matt Nagy, who has adamantly stood by Andy Dalton in public, announced that rookie quarterback Justin Fields would take over as the Bears starting quarterback for the rest of the season.
This comes as a surprise since Nagy recently said that Dalton would take over as the starter once he recovered from his knee injury — even after Fields’ breakout performance in the Bears victory over the Lions. Even though Nagy has begrudgingly reached his point to ride out the rest of the season with Fields, it’s undoubtedly the right decision for the team in the short term and the long term.
First, is the fact that Fields just has a level of playmaking that Dalton doesn’t possess at this point in his career, and he never had the level of athleticism and arm power the Fields has right now. Fields made too many big plays that showed why he’s the best option for the Bears to win games right now — something that Nagy needs to do if he wants to keep his job.
Fields may have games where the pass defenses he sees are a little overwhelming, but they were overwhelming for Dalton in his recent games as well. Fields has the trump card of mobility on his side, which has already helped him get out of sticky situations.
It wasn’t like Fields had a super established starter sitting in front of him that should be preventing from starting. This isn’t the same Dalton that played well for the Bengals in the mid-2010s. This isn’t a situation like the Chiefs had with Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith where Smith was performing like a top-10 quarterback.
Dalton is a one year, stopgap quarterback. That year can quickly fizzle into just weeks as the starter when the team trades spends two first round picks on their quarterback of the future.
The Bears need to start figuring out what they have in Fields now. He cost too much by the way of draft capital to not have a sense of where he is in his development right now. He’s going to have his fair share of bad games like any rookie, but his top end traits are worth developing right away.
Fields is talented enough to be the best Bears quarterback of all time, which is not the highest bar in the world, and they need to start getting a return on their investment. Nagy may not realize it, but playing the best quarterback on the team gives him the best chance to save his job and reignite the team around their explosive quarterback talent.