Matt Nagy likes to talk a lot without saying anything.

When asked last week why he was optimistic, his answer centered on the fact that more players understand their roles, having been in his system for longer. As expected, that response was universally panned because fans see more immediate results elsewhere.

But there was a second part of his answer.

After rambling about experience he added “When you have that and you have a guy like Andy (Dalton) and these quarterbacks that come in and understand it, that’s where it gives me confidence.”

Ah, yes. The most important position in sports does, in fact, matter. The truth is there is reason to believe the team’s offense will be better largely because the personnel fits what we believe he wants to do.

Nobody is going to tell you that Dalton is the savior. (Fields may be in time.) But Dalton can do things that previous quarterbacks simply couldn’t; most notably, he can throw the ball down the field with accuracy.

Keep in mind, Dalton isn’t a great downfield passer, but he’s better than what’s been here, according to Pro-Football-Reference.

• Since 2018, Dalton has 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions on passes 15 yards or more down the field, with a passer rating of 77.3.
• In the same span, Mitch Trubisky had 15 touchdowns and 20 interceptions with a rating of 63.2.
• Nick Foles had seven touchdowns and 12 interceptions with a rating of 56.

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Camp is over. Here are some big picture thoughts.

(1) Listen, the quarterbacks were always gonna be the main characters but who could imagine the story would come directly from The Twilight Zone. Justin Fields was never given an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. The game was rigged, Nagy chose Andy Dalton from the start, and the Bears will begin the season irrelevant. When will Fields play? No one knows.

(2) The actual offensive line FINALLY got on the field. There was so much hemming and hawing about poor OL play in the early weeks of camp but the Bears rarely had more than two of their starters available. Amazing that it took until the final days (and the signing of Jason Peters) to get their starting five on the field at the same time. How will they perform as a unit? One of the sport’s best defensive fronts will let us know on the evening of September 12th.

(3) Few roster surprises. This camp was pretty dull when it comes to position battles, roster spots…etc. The Bears seemed to have their minds made up in July (Kindle Vildor was placed with the ones and left there) and little that happened on the practice field or in preseason games changed them.

(4) Alec Ogletree turned up one day and couldn’t stop intercepting the football. That production – and his energy – translated to his preseason debut, where Ogletree cemented his spot on the final 53-man roster. Don’t be surprised if he’s playing a major role in the middle of the defense this season.

(5) Matt Nagy said a lot of dumb things. Signing Peters had nothing to do with Teven Jenkins’ injury? It takes four years for your offense to produce in the NFL? Nagy’s inability to (a) tell the truth and (b) own his early-career failures did not win over a fanbase that already wants him to be sent packing at year’s end.

(6) They are healthy. Teven Jenkins won’t be a factor this season. Tarik Cohen is likely to take until November to find his legs. But, for the most part, the Bears will enter the 2021 season with their roster intact.

Note: I had penned an Is There Any Reason to Watch… column about the final preseason game but with Tennessee now facing a serious Covid outbreak, that game may not even happen. (The Bears would be crazy to take on that risk for a practice game.)  If it happens, enjoy the Riley Ridley drops!

We should all be pacing our living rooms, ordering our game-watch merch for the season, diagraming fool-proof end arounds in the condensation of our shower walls. This should be one of the more anticipatory three-week periods in the history of the Chicago Bears organization.

But it’s not that.

We should be talking to our friends, tanked in the tavern, caffeinated in the coffee shop, toweled in the Turkish bath, about how much fun it’s going to be to watch Aaron Donald try to track down Justin Fields in the backfield, only to see Fields run from the pressure and complete a ball twenty-five yards down the field.

But we won’t be doing any of that.

Instead, the fan energy and enthusiasm generated by Fields this summer – seeing a quarterback do things we have never seen one do in a Bears uniform – has been thoroughly extinguished in the short-term by his head coach mangling the position all summer long. Instead, on September 12th, we’ll be forced to sit through an entire slate of Sunday football action only to see Andy Dalton take the starter’s reins on Sunday night.

Trevor Lawrence is starting. Zach Wilson is starting. Kyle Shanahan has given Trey Lance starting reps since the first day of camp and has already made it clear Lance will be part of the game plan from day one. Hell, even Mac Jones looks like he has a chance to start, after being given competitive reps with Cam Newton all summer long.

But not Fields.

Of course not Fields.

Why? Because Matt Nagy says so, that’s why.

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Matt Nagy almost seemed annoyed when asked about the quarterback situation in the moments after Saturday’s preseason affair against the bills.

He only has himself to blame.

Nagy is optimistic the team will move the ball in the regular season with Andy Dalton calling signals. His belief is that the reason they failed to in the preseason was because they were missing key players. That’s fair. The team’s top three wide receivers, two tight ends and running back all played fewer than five snaps. That’s complemented by three backups – one of whom was likely a third-stringer – along the offensive line. It would be hard for any quarterback to have success and none of the best are ever put in these situations in August.

There is more than a decade of evidence telling us that if the Bears are going to have any success with Dalton, they better have the wind at their back. They need all hands on deck and other clichés too. Dalton needs the situation to be perfect. That’s who he is. The Bears should know that.

In practice, Dalton has reportedly looked good when they’ve been near full strength. But most of the fans don’t see practice and the national media doesn’t pay attention to those reports.

Nobody should blame Nagy for sitting the stars; they need them healthy when the games matter. But if he’s that confident that Dalton is going to be the starting quarterback, why not sit him with the starters? All playing Dalton with backups did was anger fans because all they’re seeing is an immobile guy, behind a makeshift line, going three and out repeatedly. How is he supposed to succeed in that scenario?

Maybe Nagy is right. (It could happen.)

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Bears’ HC Matt Nagy reiterated today that Bears’ QB Andy Dalton will start Week 1 at Los Angeles against the Rams, saying: “We need to see him in the regular season.”

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 21, 2021

What do the Bears think they are?

That’s the question that kept rolling through my brain as I watched Andy Dalton play quarterback on Saturday.

Do the Bears think they were this close to contending for a title a year ago and slightly better quarterback play will put them over the top?

Do the Bears think this roster is good enough now to run through Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and a Matt Stafford-led Rams in the tournament?

Do the Bears think Vegas has them all wrong? That they should have better odds than 65-1 to win it all? 35-1 to win the NFC? 6-1 to win the NFC North? 2-1 to make the playoffs? An over/under win total of 7.5?

The truth is, they must. Matt Nagy saying the team needs to see Andy Dalton in the regular season is so misguided, so out of touch with the reality of where this franchise currently resides, that no other explanation is possible. The Bears don’t need to evaluate a quarterback who has been in the league for a decade and consistently underwhelmed for the duration of that time. Andy Dalton is Andy Dalton. He’s perfectly capable of being capable. The Bears, with Dalton under center, have a ceiling of about nine wins and a wildcard weekend exit. (And even that would be an achievement.)

This season, the point of the entire enterprise, is Justin Fields. And it is abundantly obvious that no matter what Nagy saw from the young quarterback, he was never going to be given an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. Now, over these next three weeks of pivotal practices, Fields will be relegated to the second teamers and scout squad. If he gets his shot to take over the starting gig during the season, it’ll likely be that week he throws his first passes to Allen Robinson, Cole Kmet and Darnell Mooney in any structured kind of way.

It is malpractice, plain and simple.

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The Bears have played two preseason games. In the first, Justin Fields thoroughly outplayed Dalton. After that game, many expected Fields to be given increased exposure to the starters in practice. He was not. Why?

In the second game, with the exception of one bad throw that a Buffalo first, second or third-team corner easily knocks to the ground, Dalton was brutal. You want to blame the absence of Robinson, Kmet, Mooney and Montgomery? Go right ahead. But Fields came onto the field with a worse collection of skill guys and an offensive line of future real estate salesmen, and moved the team down the field. He used his athleticism. He used his mobility. He used his rocket for an arm. If any of the scrub receivers he was paired with could catch the football, he might have had a stat sheet similar to his first performance. Did Nagy see this performance and say, “It’s time to get Fields some reps with the starters”? Nope. He used the postgame press conference to name Dalton his official Week One starter.

He watched what we all watched. That was his conclusion. How?

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Teven Jenkins Has Back Surgery.

• It is now unlikely the second-round selection will see the field this season. Back injuries are bad news for offensive linemen, and pretty much everyone else on the planet.
• Trading up for a player with known injury concerns, even despite the potential/ability, is a suspect decision. Often times draftniks will argue that players “fall” in the draft but the truth is many organizations don’t touch guys with lingering injury concerns. Ryan Pace has to own this failure, including the decision to release Charles Leno, leaving the club extremely vulnerable on the edge.
• Once again, I question why Matt Nagy says the things he says publicly. Why say the Jason Peters signing has nothing to do with Jenkins’ health FOUR DAYS before the latter has surgery? Does that give the club a competitive advantage? No. All it does it devalue any other public statements you make. After a while, everyone is going to just tune the coach out. (I’m pretty damn close.)
• There will certainly be some urgency inside the Bears when it comes to Jenkins’ recovery but their entire focus should be readying him for the 2022 season. If this is a redshirt season, so be it. He’ll still be an immensely talented tackle next off-season.

What Do the Bears Do if Andy Dalton Stinks on Saturday?

Justin Fields is the future at the quarterback position.

Justin Fields has shown command of the offense and composure at every stage of the off-season program.

The only thing seemingly keeping the Bears from giving Fields the first-team reps in practice and naming him the starter is the presence, and behavior, of Andy Dalton. (If the Bears only had Nick Foles on the roster, you think he’d be getting starter’s reps?) Dalton was signed with the “promise” of the starting gig and has been a model soldier during his short tenure with the organization. Dalton doesn’t have the resume to keep Fields at bay. He hasn’t lit up training camp. He’s been fine. He’s been…Andy Dalton. And that seems to be enough.

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Trevis Gipson and tight end Cethan Carter have been going after each other in these blocking drills.

Khalil Mack and Adam Shaheen got into it earlier and after the two were separated, Mack kept on talking towards Shaheen.

Already getting heated in today’s practice.

— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) August 12, 2021

Thursday was apparently a feisty practice throughout, which is actually nice to see. I don’t know why every team in the league doesn’t orchestra more of these joint practices. They are so much more valuable than in-house scrimmages.

Early candidate for play of the day: Justin Fields moving left, throwing right, floating a dime to Jesper Horsted. Creative throw, basically flicking the ball from his right pocket.

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) August 12, 2021

Another day, another Fields gem. Why would any team leave a talent like this on the bench?

Kindle Vildor and Teez Tabor had some really nice pass breakups for #Bears D in red zone action.

— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) August 12, 2021

Bears corners have been good so far this summer, and the defense is playing healthy and fast across the board.

Is There Anything to Watch Tomorrow?

The truth is, who knows?

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Last year, around this time, I texted a certain buddy of mine who happens to be the best beat writer covering the Chicago Bears. I asked him what was going on with Trubisky and Foles. He didn’t say anything specific about either player. He didn’t say, “Trubisky and Foles both stink.” But it was very apparent from his tone – and the tone he used on his popular podcast with another similarly-named fella – that both stinking was exactly the case.

This year, around yesterday, I texted a certain buddy of mine well-connected at the highest reaches of the Halls of Halas. I asked what he was hearing about Fields, thinking he might diffuse some of the hype. He responded in about four seconds, “Kids got it.” (Yes, there is a grammatical error there but just the facts on DBB.)

I don’t know if Justin Fields has it.

And it might be a year or two before ANYONE knows.

But unless he displays a complete inability to process information this summer, and that has overwhelmingly not been the case to this point, I can’t imagine a rationale for sitting him a single week of the 2021 season.

Because while we talk about “development”, that doesn’t actually happen during an NFL season at the quarterback position. Once the third preseason game is played, the backup QB essentially enters QB College. It’s all book learning. They become a student of the job but don’t get a single meaningful rep as long as they stay in that role. There just aren’t enough practice hours during the week anymore.

If Fields gets through the next few weeks with a mastery of the playbook and firm handle on the fundamentals of playing the position at the pro level (he seems to have mastered play-calling in the huddle in about two days), why waste a single second of his supremely-valuable rookie contract trying to win a few transitional games with Andy Dalton? Why risk Dalton playing well, keeping the job all season, and then having to start anew with Fields in 2022, knowing no more than we know right now? What is the rationale for not developing the kid in real games, against real opponents?

[Side note: I don’t buy this notion that Dalton definitively gives the Bears the best chance to win games, even as early as September. Dalton has been mediocre for years. Why would that change here?]

Also, shouldn’t it be incumbent upon this coaching staff to be able to do that? The head coach is a former college quarterback. The offensive coordinator is a former college quarterback. The quarterbacks coach is a former college quarterback. Shouldn’t these guys be able manage and bring along a talent like Fields at game speed? If not, why? If not, isn’t it fair to question the point of having such a quarterback-centric staff, and more specifically question what value these individuals bring to the organization generally?

This summer is progressing perfectly for the Chicago Bears. The quarterback they drafted, the man whose future success will mean the organization’s future success, is displaying every single quality they hoped he would display at this stage: mental, physical, emotional. The arrow is pointed up, and everybody around Lake Forest recognizes that. If he continues to progress, and display those qualities, why turn the arrow on its side?

Because the only way to truly develop in the NFL is to play NFL football. And that should be the focus of this coaching staff when it comes to Justin Fields.

Tweet one. Adam Jahns.

Really only only takeaway from Bears camp today:

Justin Fields was good. It’s the velocity of his throws, particularly over the middle, but also how often he gives his WRs/TEs a chance to make plays.

His scrambling and ability to change his arm angle on throws stood out, too.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 2, 2021

Tweet two. DBB.

Why not Andy Dalton for the Colts?

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) August 2, 2021

There is an eagerness to get Justin Fields on the field. And, as Jeff illustrated, that eagerness seems to be okay with shipping Andy Dalton east. But like it or not, the Chicago Bears need Dalton as much for the future of the franchise as the present. Because developing Fields is the single most important thing the franchise is trying to accomplish right now and making sure he has the right coach is an important part of that. Through three years, we still don’t really know if Matt Nagy can outsmart opposing defensive coordinators. Dalton could help us get that answer.

The numbers aren’t pretty. Through three years:

• All three years in the bottom twelve, in terms of yardage.
• Two scoring offenses in the bottom ten.
• Bottom five in rushing twice.
• Bottom twelve in passing yardage all three years.

Judging by the numbers alone, one could only conclude that Nagy is a bad offensive coach.

But we know it’s about more than the numbers.

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And so, camp begins.

Two nights ago I was sitting in my local and two guys, for no other reason than the Aaron Rodgers “thaw” news being broadcast on the televisions above us, asked me what I expected from the Bears this season.

My answers were wishy washy, ineffectual, nebbish.

The paragraphs were peppered with you knows and who knows and maybe, I guesses. Normally, as training camp begins, I have a pretty solid grasp on what is to come over the next 5-6 months from the Chicago Bears. (2019 being a signature exception, wherein I believed the quarterback was going to take a significant leap.) But this season, not only don’t I have that grasp, I don’t see their performance over these next 5-6 months as particularly important.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be into every game. I am not one of these Bears fans that sees upside in losing. (You would think the events of the 2021 NFL Draft would put an end to that stupidity.) I’ve written many times that some of my favorite moments as a fan of this franchise were during forgettable campaigns. I want the Bears to win every single time they play football.

But 2021 seems like the very definition of a transitional season. Look at the details:

• The quarterback of the future is on the roster but unlikely to see more than a half season of work.
• The quarterback manning the position is a solid veteran option but isn’t going to take the club, in all likelihood, beyond wildcard weekend.
• The team is littered with veterans, specifically on defense, who are unlikely to be on the roster in 2022. This includes the team’s entire pass rush.
• It is the defensive coordinator’s first season on the job.
• The cornerback position won’t be solidified until next spring.
• The left tackle isn’t a left tackle. I happen to believe he is going to be a terrific one in the future but as a rookie? History says no.

None of this is to say the Bears can’t win a bunch of games this season. They can. But is it Andy Dalton winning those games? If yes, okay, that’s nice. But is it better for the 2022 Chicago Bears for Dalton to go 10-7 as a starter or Justin Fields to quarterback the last eight games to a 4-4 record while looking the part of frontline NFL starting QB? Of course the answer is the latter because there is 0% chance Dalton is starting for the Bears next year unless something goes terribly wrong. (Do you feel the nebbish here? I’m practically writing in Woody Allen’s voice.)

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