The Bears get it. You’re excited that Justin Fields has finally been named the starter. Frankly, they’re excited too. But now that we’re at this point, the Bears want to manage some expectations too.
“Are there gonna be times where there's a bad play, a bad decision, something that happens that a rookie quarterback normally makes?” Nagy said. “Yes there is. That's gonna happen. And then there's that growth as well. That's gonna be important.”
“You just have to understand that there’s going to be mistakes made,” said Fields. “You just have to learn from those mistakes and try not to make those mistakes twice. Every snap I get I’m going to see what I could have done better, and try not to make those mistakes twice.”
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At every stage of Fields’ development, there have been plenty of unknowns. Now that he’s going to be the starter moving forward, that doesn’t change.
“When he got here in OTAs, we weren’t sure how it was gonna be,” Nagy said. “When he showed up in training camp, we weren’t sure how it was gonna be, and he showed us that he was ready to take that step. We got to the preseason, albeit whoever he’s playing against, he showed us that he’s ready to go out there and make plays. And then when we got to the season as the backup, he was showing us, as we said, inspire your teammates when you're out there. When you're out there as a look-team quarterback, inspire your teammates. Make others better. And so he did that.
“Then he gets, unfortunately, an opportunity through Andy's health to go out there and play, and he goes in as the backup that game, the game with Cincy. Then he plays in the game against Cleveland and now he's bounced back from that.”
Nagy said the Bears have seen incremental progress from Fields ever since he got to Halas Hall. But they were particularly impressed with his ability to rebound against the Lions after the atrocious game in Week 3.
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“There’s a lot of guys that might not have come back from that,” Nagy said. “That was tough, but that just shows who he is. All of us, just knowing and seeing what he’s about, and then that trust. You know, Justin has earned that trust with us. Now, that’s kinda why we went that way.”
There might be more ugly moments this season as Fields continues to acclimate to the NFL, but in the Bears’ eyes he’s proven that he can handle it.
“He's grown to this point,” Nagy said. “He's earned it. He's worked hard. And now he has this opportunity.”