Chicago Bears will have fine line to walk with Justin Fields starting

Matt Nagy says he doesn’t want to rush Justin Fields with the Chicago Bears but there is a fine line to walk with the rookie quarterback.

The Chicago Bears emerged from the 2021 NFL Draft as clear winners. Able to make a trade up to the No. 11 pick to land former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, they answered the biggest question on their roster with arguably the second-best quarterback in the class. That’s a franchise-altering selection for Chicago.

However, the Bears were clearly planning to not be in a situation in which Fields was on the roster. The organization signed veteran Andy Dalton this offseason as, with the No. 20 pick, having one of the top-five quarterbacks drop to them seemed unlikely. But now that they have Fields and Dalton, the question becomes what the timeline will be for the rookie.

Talking on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Bears head coach Matt Nagy was asked about that. In response to what they plan to do with Fields and his timeline as the starter, he had this to say:

"“The worst thing we can do is put him in when he’s not ready and ruin him, which ruins the Bears.”"

There’s a chance that’s just coachspeak and that, behind closed doors in the Windy City, they are prepared to start Justin Fields in Week 1. At the same time, it does highlight the fine line the franchise has to walk with their rookie quarterback.

The best chance of the Chicago Bears succeeding is with Justin Fields starting.

In Nagy’s comments since the draft, he has compared Fields joining the Chicago Bears with Andy Dalton on the roster to the Chiefs when they drafted Patrick Mahomes and allowed him to sit for a year behind Alex Smith. That would be perfect — but it’s also not realistic.

For starters, Dalton is not as good as Smith was at these specific points in their careers; additionally, the Bears aren’t in as good of a position as the Chiefs were in terms of their roster. Chicago has rolled out a top-tier defense but the unit has started to decline slightly. That’s been glaring as the offense has continued to struggle with Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles starting.

Further complicating the matter is that Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace are likely working to keep their jobs beyond the 2021 season. Sticking around means that they have to win games. And as most people will tell you, the upside of Fields gives the Bears the best opportunity to win games, much more so than Dalton does.

This is also without considering the pressure from a passionate fanbase to start Fields as soon as possible. So, when you look at the whole equation, Fields may require some time to sit and develop. But the timeline for Nagy, Pace and the Bears with their rookie quarterback is going to be critical. Start him too soon, and they may hurt his development. Start him too late, and the current regime might not be around to see Fields after this year.