Five reasons why the Bears are sticking with Justin Fields at QB – Chicago Bears Blog

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy officially switched starting quarterbacks when he announced Wednesday that rookie Justin Fields is the club’s starter moving forward, regardless of Andy Dalton’s (knee) health status.

Nagy emphasized that the Bears won’t turn back to Dalton, barring injury, telling gathered media, “This is Justin’s time.”

Fields, who started Weeks 3 and 4 due to Dalton’s injury, will again lead the Bears’ offense when they visit the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday (4:05 p.m. ET on CBS). Here are five reasons Nagy and the Bears decided to make the move to the former Ohio State standout:

1. The Bears moved up to get him

Once the Bears traded up nine spots to take Fields in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft, it became inevitable that he would eventually be Chicago’s full-time starting quarterback. Teams had traded up in the first round — or into the first round — to draft a quarterback 19 times from 2002 to 2020. It happened seven times from 2017 to 2020, with teams taking the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen (and Mitchell Trubisky). Heard of them?

Fields is the future. Everyone at Bears headquarters knew it the moment Fields stepped into the building for the first time. It was only a matter of time before Fields leapfrogged Dalton on the depth chart.

2. Dalton’s knee injury

The moment Dalton suffered a bone bruise in his left knee in the second quarter of the Bears’ Sept. 19 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, it was over for the veteran quarterback, despite Nagy telling reporters Dalton would remain the starter when healthy. It’s not as if the Bears needed much incentive to go with Fields, who already had played snaps against the Los Angeles Rams and Bengals prior to Dalton’s injury…