Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy makes head-scratching move with quarterbacks

The Chicago Bears’ second preseason game was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the starters. Most of the starters on offense sat down, however, making the analysis at quarterback more difficult.

The Chicago Bears fell to the Buffalo Bills 41-15 over the weekend. It was embarrassing, but we all remember that this was just a preseason game. The game was more of watching certain position battles. Some players took a bigger lead in some of those battles (I’m looking at you, Rodney Adams).

That’s why some of what head coach Matt Nagy did in the game was confusing. Usually, the third preseason game is the “dress rehearsal” for the starters. They play an extended time so they get some work. Then, in the final game, the starters sit.

This preseason, however, things are different. There are only three games. If you still want the last game to look at position battles and sit the starters, then the second preseason game should be the dress rehearsal.

That was supposed to happen. Nagy said after the Bears’ first preseason game that rookie quarterback Justin Fields did enough of a good job in his debut to earn snaps with the starters. That didn’t happen, though. Receivers Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney, and Marquise Goodwin didn’t play. Additionally, tight end Cole Kmet also didn’t play.

Sitting all those starters made it difficult to analyze the quarterbacks. WIth backup receiving targets and an offensive line still missing key players, there was no way you can get a good idea of how the quarterbacks performed. Dalton looked bad for most of the first half. He had 146 yards passing, but half of it, 73, came on one play to Adams.

Fields only had 80 yards passing and completed less than 50 percent of his passes, but he did have 46 yards rushing, leading the team. He had to run around because of the offensive line and suffered from a number of receivers’ drops.

It is confusing trying to figure out what Nagy did. He says the rookie needs snaps with the starters but then sits the starters. There is no way he’ll play the starters for a long period of time in their final preseason game against the Tennessee Titans. That pretty much closes the book on any analysis of Fields.

Earlier in the offseason, Nagy said that, barring injury, there was no scenario in which he saw Fields becoming the starter in Week 1 of the season. His moves likely guaranteed that there was no scenario to be had.

After the game, Nagy reiterated the plan to have Dalton start Week 1.

I’ve said this before — Nagy’s closed-mindedness is a mistake. I agreed with having Dalton ahead of Fields at the start of camp. However, let them play and let the better man win. Nagy prevented that from happening. He all but guaranteed Dalton the starting spot. It was never going to be Fields. Nagy said so and we should’ve believed him.

The offense looks sharper with Fields. Yes, he struggled at times, but every quarterback, especially rookies, does as well. FIelds can use his legs to create while Dalton cannot. We saw the offense with an immobile quarterback leading it last season with Nick Foles. Do we really want to go back to that?

By stacking the deck, Nagy didn’t do Dalton any favors. The fans are clearly behind Fields and no matter what Dalton does, short of winning the Super Bowl, he’ll hear a chorus of boos each time he steps on the field. He’ll need to go on the road to feel better.

We needed to see how Fields plays with the starters. We didn’t see that happen. Now we’ll have to wait for Dalton to fail in order to see Fields throw to the likes of Robinson and company.