Bears camp notes: Andy Dalton still QB1 and the injury update

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy met the media on Monday morning before their training camp practice, and he addressed the question on everyone's mind; is Andy Dalton still the starting quarterback?

Nagy said their plan for rookie QB Justin Fields hasn’t changed, he’s still the number two with Dalton as the week one starter. He also said that their plan is to get Fields some reps with their starters, which is an important part of the process.

“I think that that’s real,” Nagy said when asked if it’s valuable in seeing Fields work with the ones. “I think you need to look into that, you need to be able to see, OK, not only so much to see that within the players, because he gets some of that in practice right now, he’s getting some of that. But also it would be good to see what he does versus the first-team defense. When you combine both of those together, that’s again kind of the evaluation process.”

Dalton and the regular starters will play more than a couple series on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills in preseason game two, but Fields will likely get some reps with the number one O as well.

On the injury front Nagy announced that defensive back Michael Joseph broke his thumb against the Dolphins and will not practice today, and running back Ryan Nall (chest) and outside linebacker Robert Quinn (ankle) also will sit out after getting dinged up. Running back David Montgomery was also held out due to soreness.

He also announced that starting safety Tashaun Gipson, cornerback Artie Burns, and wide out Marquise Goodwin will all return to practice. Eddie Goldman, who recently came off the reserve/COVID list, is also back practicing today.

Nagy’s full presser can be found here.