Have we reached the acceptance stage yet, Chicago?
Bears coach Matt Nagy has stuck by his plan to start Andy Dalton instead of Justin Fields, and no decibel of shouting from fans/former players/national talking heads/local talking heads appears to have changed that decision heading into the season opener.
Well, maybe yell one more time that the first-round draft pick gives the Bears a better chance to win behind an uncertain offensive line against the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 12.
Still no depth-chart change? OK, then here’s the next important question for those whose Septembers might feel a little duller without the prospect of seeing Fields start.
How quick will Nagy be to pull Dalton if he isn’t producing the way the Bears need him to?
If Dalton plays the way Nagy, general manager Ryan Pace and Dalton say he still can, then this won’t be complicated. The Bears can keep Fields on the sideline for a few weeks or months as he better learns how to read defenses, understand protections and go through the NFL’s demanding game-preparation process. Maybe they use Fields in special packages to give him some time on the field and the offense an occasional boost. But Dalton, 33 and on a one-year contract, can show he still can lead a winning football team as he looks to extend his career.
Dalton is five years removed from his last Pro Bowl season, but he has started 142 games and has a level of veteran savvy and control the Bears haven’t seen for years. Teammates such as Allen Robinson have described how that experience helps their communication.
“He’s won a lot of games in this league,” Pace said. “His decision-making, his intangibles, his leadership. … There are so many veteran players that have come up to me and have made comments about Andy Dalton and what he’s doing — in practices, in the locker room, in the huddle — all those little things that I think we’re going to see pay off as we get into the season. It’s more about Andy right now. We’re excited about Justin. I’m more excited than anybody. But we’re just going to let this thing play out.”
It will get thornier if the Bears offense under Dalton continues to look like it did in the preseason. Without Robinson, Darnell Mooney, David Montgomery, Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham playing significant snaps, Dalton completed 13 of 21 passes for 164 yards, a touchdown and an interception and was sacked twice. The Bears scored on one of nine Dalton-led possessions in his two preseason games.
If Dalton is merely serviceable and a defense with serious question marks doesn’t take a step forward to keep the Bears in games, Nagy will have a decision to make.
On Thursday, Nagy wasn’t about to draw parallels or lessons from the quarterback dynamic he handled last year, when he opted to start Mitch Trubisky and then pulled him for Nick Foles midway through the Week 3 game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Nagy’s history with Trubisky over two seasons already was muddy at that point, and many suspected he would have a quick hook.
A year later, Dalton will be playing in Nagy’s offense in the regular season for the first time, with several skill players he has seen minimal game action with.
What level of patience is Nagy willing to give Dalton?
“We’re looking it as: Are we producing?” Nagy responded Thursday to that question. “Our goal right now as an offense is we want to be able to get first downs, score touchdowns and then win ultimately. You want to win and then make good decisions. We’ll have to see as we go out there. There are going to be in-game adjustments because you always get into Week 1 and you see unscouted looks or you see something that’s a surprise. So we as a staff are going to have to make sure that we’re all over that, and the players have got to adjust and just play.
“It goes back to the very beginning of where I set my mentality, which is focus on right now. Don’t focus on next week, don’t focus on weeks down the road or months. … And if we do that, we feel like that’s how the decisions are going to be made.”
Part of the subtext of this conversation — something Pace and Nagy are never going to acknowledge publicly — is whether how they feel about their job security is going to influence the decision about when to make the change.
If they feel pressure from above to produce a winning season, did they fixate on Dalton because they believe his experience will keep him from making the type of losing mistakes a rookie might make? And has that perspective changed at all after watching Fields fulfill expectations up to this point and show the ability to elevate the offense, even if only in the preseason? Could that influence when they make a change if Dalton isn’t leading wins?
Or do Pace and Nagy feel secure enough that George McCaskey and Ted Phillips will give them time for Fields’ development on the side, leading them to let the situation play out a little longer?
McCaskey and Phillips haven’t spoken with the media corps since Jan. 13. They used the words “progress” and “improvement” then about what they expect to see from the Bears this season. On Wednesday, Pace was asked in a couple of different ways what the expectations are and what progress would mean.
“To me it goes all back to winning football games and getting in the playoffs and winning when we’re in the playoffs,” Pace said.
During the many questions Dalton has answered about his situation with the Bears, he has been polite but firm in saying he has confidence in himself as a starter and is not focused on the hype around Fields.
“Justin is going to have his time and Justin is going to have a great career,” Dalton said. “But right now it’s my time, and so my focus is on being the best player I can be for this team and do everything I can to help this team win.”
Still, he is the placeholder, a position that’s going to be under intense scrutiny from all that have been clamoring for the Bears to start Fields. What happens if there are some bumps along the way?
Dalton and Fields already have had to address fans booing Dalton after a slow start in the preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, and it’s fair to wonder how adversity in a regular-season game might be handled inside the Bears locker room too.
Pace was asked Wednesday if the Bears, with Fields waiting in the wings, have set Dalton up to fail.
“We’ll know when we know,” Pace said. “Right now we have a positive outlook. The positive outlook goes off of what we see here every day with Andy, and that’s Andy’s going to be leading our offense and that’s Justin’s going to be progressing at the right rate.
“Our goal all along guys has been to win games with Andy and look over on that other field and see, ‘Hey, look at this guy right here, look at the future of the franchise we have right here.’ That’s the goal, and we haven’t changed from that.”
But how long will the player who’s not the future of the franchise get to prove himself?
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September 05, 2021 at 06:30PM
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If fans accept Andy Dalton as the Chicago Bears starting QB over Justin Fields, here's the next question: How much patience will Matt Nagy show him? - Chicago Tribune
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