Bears fans are getting their wish this week, with rookie quarterback Justin Fields starting in place of the injured Andy Dalton. And Bears coach Matt Nagy says Fields is already showing he looks the part of a first-string quarterback.
Nagy said Fields is learning each day as he takes control of the starting offense in practice, but he also said he’s learning more about Fields by seeing the way he grows while getting all the first-string reps.
“We’re learning, too,” Nagy said. “This week, with him getting all the reps in practice, there’s things that we’re seeing that maybe we didn’t see in the first two weeks because he wasn’t getting those one reps.”
That raises the question, of course, of whether Fields should have been the starting quarterback all along. Nagy indicated that he wanted Fields to learn from the sideline while Dalton played, but now that Fields is playing anyway because Dalton is hurt, it might have served Fields well to be running the first-string offense from Day One.