Chicago Bears: Justin Fields starting brings hope, relief

The Chicago Bears are turning to Justin Fields, which brings a breath of fresh air and also a sigh of relief.

The Chicago Bears faithful received both good and bad news regarding Justin Fields getting his first start against the Cleveland Browns in Week 3.

The good news is that he gets to start, and the Bears will get a glimpse of what they hope to be a bright future. The bad news? It’s a road game and, had Andy Dalton been healthy, according to head coach Matt Nagy, Fields would still be on the bench.

Instead, Dalton is battling an injury in his knee, which opens the door for the 11th overall pick to finally make his first career start. The backup? Former Super Bowl MVP and third-stringer Nick Foles.

But here comes the main question. What took so long? Even if Andy Dalton had been healthy, why would the Bears continue to stick with him instead of inserting the rookie they invested in and seeing what he’s capable of doing?

This past April, five quarterbacks were taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, and three of them started day 1 for their team, all of which reside in the AFC East. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Mac Jones each took over from the first snap onward.

While San Francisco took Trey Lance, he’s currently backing up Jimmy Garoppolo. However, the 49ers have an incredibly talented team, and sooner or later, Lance will be inserted, and off they will go. As for Chicago, it’s been a different story.

Nagy has insisted on starting Dalton from the beginning, which makes it very difficult to develop Fields. After two games with Dalton at the helm and seeing what it produced, it was clear that Fields had to step in and work.

While it’s unfortunate that Dalton suffered an injury, the move was inevitable, even if there were significant concerns among the Bears’ offense, specifically the offensive line.

The Chicago Bears should have started Justin Fields from the beginning, and now it’s his turn to show what he can do.

This season, Justin Fields has rushed for a touchdown and thrown an interception through limited action in the first two games. The stats may not drop jaws, but you can see traits that translate well to the NFL by watching closely.

However, against Cleveland, Fields will have his work cut out for him against a team that turned heads last season and looks to have turned the page as an organization, a movement not seen in Chicago.

Outside of a 12-4 mirage in 2018, headlined by a field goal attempt that shall not be brought up, the Bears haven’t been among the league’s best for a very long time.

Last season was merely an aberration, an 8-8 record good enough to be the 7th seed in the playoffs, to which it amounted to nothing.

With Fields, the future is bright for the Bears, provided, of course, they put the requisite weapons around him on both sides of the ball. Chicago currently has a lot of expensive veterans on their roster.

While this season will primarily consist of the players they have right now, next offseason is critical. Unfortunately, the Bears have very limited draft capital and cap space.

The best the franchise can do is move on from the expensive veterans and try to acquire draft picks and clear cap space to build around Fields.

For now, Chicago can breathe a sigh of relief that they will get to see their rookie first-round quarterback in action. It took longer than expected, but the future is now in the Windy City.