Bears coach Matt Nagy has been clear that the plan in Chicago is for Andy Dalton to start at quarterback, and Justin Fields to begin his rookie season on the bench. But what if Dalton were to get hurt in the preseason?
In that case, Nagy says, Fields takes over.
“He would be the guy,” Nagy said of Fields when asked about the hypothetical that Dalton is injured, via the Chicago Sun-Times.
That means Nick Foles is stuck at No. 3 on the depth chart, a year after the Bears traded a fourth-round draft pick for him. Foles is due a $4 million guaranteed base salary this season, so the Bears may be stuck with him, but they have no desire to play him.
Nagy said he sees little chance of that order -- Dalton, then Fields, then Foles -- changing.
“There will be a process and a plan,” Nagy said. “We will stick to that. That plan is not going to change tomorrow. The plan is not going to change in training camp. The plan is a plan — and it’s been thought out. . . . All three of those guys know that you need to produce, you need to play well, you need to compete, you need to be the best quarterback you can be. And then it’s going to be really pretty easy for us to see who that is and how that goes.”
So the Bears want Fields to have time to develop and learn on the sideline -- but they want even less to put Foles on the field.