Justin Fields to see ‘a lot’ of work this preseason

The pecking order in the Chicago Bears quarterback room hasn‘t changed based on the few voluntary OTA practices and the one mandatory minicamp the team held. And based on comments from head coach Matt Nagy it likely won’t change at all during training camp or preseason, but at least it sounds like the QB2 will have plenty of opportunities to sway the coaching staff in those practice games.

According to the Monday Morning Quarterback from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Bears intend to give rookie Justin Fields “a lot” of playing time when the Bears line up against the Dolphins, Bills, and Titans this August. Here’s what he wrote.

...what I’ve heard is that the Bears are going to give him a lot of work in the preseason games.

I wanted to specifically share the blockquote to show that Breer used italics to emphasize his statement.

Nagy is on record in saying he plans to play his starters more in preseason than he has in the past, so it’s certainly possible we see Fields lined up with the ones at some point.

Andy Dalton (the QB1) will probably start all three of those preseason games, and since the second game now appears to be the dress rehearsal game, he’ll likely play most against the Bills on August 21, but Fields has more to gain from the practice game reps, so it’ll be interesting to see how much he plays with the first team.

As the third stringer and most knowledgeable on the offensive system, Nick Foles may not see many reps until that third game in Tennessee, if at all. Is there really a point in playing him?

With an extra week this year between the preseason and the regular season we may not see as many of the core 53 get the night off in the finale, so it could make some sense to let Fields get some work if he’s doing it with some other twos. Teams will be allowed to carry 80 players into that week three preseason game so playing time will be an interesting storyline to monitor.