Chicago’s long, regional nightmare is finally over. After weeks of wondering just what in the heck head coach Matt Nagy is thinking, the Chicago Bears have named rookie Justin Fields their starting quarterback moving forward.
Coach Nagy announced that Justin Fields will be our starter going forward.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 6, 2021
Matt Nagy: “This is Justin’s time. We’re so confident with where he’s at. Let him grow.”
— Dan Wiederer (@danwiederer) October 6, 2021
The move follows weeks of confusing decision-making by Nagy, who stubbornly kept saying that Andy Dalton was the starter so long as he was healthy. Meanwhile, the Bears’ offense seemed to be suffering from a playbook that didn’t make sense coupled with the uncertainty that Dalton’s injury threw into the mix. While Fields struggled in his first start a couple of weeks ago, the team saw a huge improvement last weekend thanks to a new offensive gameplan, called by offensive coordinator Bill Lazor.
With Bill Lazor as the play-caller in Week 4, the Bears ramped up play-action usage (+10%), designed run percentage (+37%), and the percentage of plays that Fields lined up under center (+47%).
Fields also averaged an NFL-high 13.7 air yards per attempt in Week 4. https://t.co/0neqv7Pf9Q
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 6, 2021
Nagy came under scrutiny as the Bears’ offense sputtered when he was calling plays and refusing to adjust the gameplan for Fields or even consider making the rookie his starter in order to get him more reps. And he’s taken on a lot of flak for the way he’s handled things as they’ve progressed, taking responsibility for changes while also presumably being the reason things needed to change.
Ryan Clark with the perfect response to the Matt Nagy press conference. pic.twitter.com/ZoH36cKVAM
— Max Markham (@MaxMarkhamNFL) October 4, 2021
For his part, Fields sounds excited for the opportunity and ready to do the work. He said that his parents wanted to go out and celebrate when he got the news about being the starter but he decided to stay home and stay focused.
#Bears QB Justin Fields says his parents wanted to go out last night to celebrate him becoming the starter.
Fields said no and just wanted to watch film and get ready for the game on Sunday.
His parents went out without him.pic.twitter.com/WM8NN1w7KY
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 6, 2021
Meanwhile, while people think the move is a positive one, there are certainly plenty of reactions to the announcement from NFL circles on Twitter.
When Matt Nagy started his press conference by saying Andy Dalton was going to practice fully today… pic.twitter.com/4csywUr3kd
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) October 6, 2021
Matt Nagy is definitely the person at a restaurant who makes the waiter come back because they can't decide what to order… https://t.co/AhaQJCJ82U
— Jenna Lemoncelli (@jennalemoncelli) October 6, 2021
It’s official. Not sure if Matt Nagy had help at Halas Hall coming to this conclusion but, as we know, everything goes through him. https://t.co/xXnZe8IPjH
— David Haugh (@DavidHaugh) October 6, 2021
We did it. Twitter officially bullied Matt Nagy into actually making the best decisions. https://t.co/l14etT23at
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) October 6, 2021
Now fire Matt Nagy https://t.co/QMtRE6gzYQ
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) October 6, 2021
Matt Nagy finally realized where the future of the franchise is. Now keep letting Bill Lazor call the plays and work on development the rest of the year https://t.co/V2ZQdST7cK
— Nico Haeflinger (@NicoHaeflinger) October 6, 2021
Fields will get put to the test this weekend in his first official game as the starting quarterback when the Bears travel to Las Vegas to take on the 3-1 Raiders. A lot of people are going to be keeping an eye on the stats and the outcome to justify the decision, even if it’s way more of a marathon than a sprint.
[Bears]
