Camp is over. Here are some big picture thoughts.

(1) Listen, the quarterbacks were always gonna be the main characters but who could imagine the story would come directly from The Twilight Zone. Justin Fields was never given an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. The game was rigged, Nagy chose Andy Dalton from the start, and the Bears will begin the season irrelevant. When will Fields play? No one knows.

(2) The actual offensive line FINALLY got on the field. There was so much hemming and hawing about poor OL play in the early weeks of camp but the Bears rarely had more than two of their starters available. Amazing that it took until the final days (and the signing of Jason Peters) to get their starting five on the field at the same time. How will they perform as a unit? One of the sport’s best defensive fronts will let us know on the evening of September 12th.

(3) Few roster surprises. This camp was pretty dull when it comes to position battles, roster spots…etc. The Bears seemed to have their minds made up in July (Kindle Vildor was placed with the ones and left there) and little that happened on the practice field or in preseason games changed them.

(4) Alec Ogletree turned up one day and couldn’t stop intercepting the football. That production – and his energy – translated to his preseason debut, where Ogletree cemented his spot on the final 53-man roster. Don’t be surprised if he’s playing a major role in the middle of the defense this season.

(5) Matt Nagy said a lot of dumb things. Signing Peters had nothing to do with Teven Jenkins’ injury? It takes four years for your offense to produce in the NFL? Nagy’s inability to (a) tell the truth and (b) own his early-career failures did not win over a fanbase that already wants him to be sent packing at year’s end.

(6) They are healthy. Teven Jenkins won’t be a factor this season. Tarik Cohen is likely to take until November to find his legs. But, for the most part, the Bears will enter the 2021 season with their roster intact.

Note: I had penned an Is There Any Reason to Watch… column about the final preseason game but with Tennessee now facing a serious Covid outbreak, that game may not even happen. (The Bears would be crazy to take on that risk for a practice game.)  If it happens, enjoy the Riley Ridley drops!

We should all be pacing our living rooms, ordering our game-watch merch for the season, diagraming fool-proof end arounds in the condensation of our shower walls. This should be one of the more anticipatory three-week periods in the history of the Chicago Bears organization.

But it’s not that.

We should be talking to our friends, tanked in the tavern, caffeinated in the coffee shop, toweled in the Turkish bath, about how much fun it’s going to be to watch Aaron Donald try to track down Justin Fields in the backfield, only to see Fields run from the pressure and complete a ball twenty-five yards down the field.

But we won’t be doing any of that.

Instead, the fan energy and enthusiasm generated by Fields this summer – seeing a quarterback do things we have never seen one do in a Bears uniform – has been thoroughly extinguished in the short-term by his head coach mangling the position all summer long. Instead, on September 12th, we’ll be forced to sit through an entire slate of Sunday football action only to see Andy Dalton take the starter’s reins on Sunday night.

Trevor Lawrence is starting. Zach Wilson is starting. Kyle Shanahan has given Trey Lance starting reps since the first day of camp and has already made it clear Lance will be part of the game plan from day one. Hell, even Mac Jones looks like he has a chance to start, after being given competitive reps with Cam Newton all summer long.

But not Fields.

Of course not Fields.

Why? Because Matt Nagy says so, that’s why.

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“Picture if you will, a sporting organization with a history of failure at that sport’s most important position, finally getting the right guy and then choosing not to play him because of…Andy Dalton.

These are the personnel decisions only to be found…in The Twilight Zone.” pic.twitter.com/mHvlD55sqY

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) August 24, 2021

Matt Nagy almost seemed annoyed when asked about the quarterback situation in the moments after Saturday’s preseason affair against the bills.

He only has himself to blame.

Nagy is optimistic the team will move the ball in the regular season with Andy Dalton calling signals. His belief is that the reason they failed to in the preseason was because they were missing key players. That’s fair. The team’s top three wide receivers, two tight ends and running back all played fewer than five snaps. That’s complemented by three backups – one of whom was likely a third-stringer – along the offensive line. It would be hard for any quarterback to have success and none of the best are ever put in these situations in August.

There is more than a decade of evidence telling us that if the Bears are going to have any success with Dalton, they better have the wind at their back. They need all hands on deck and other clichés too. Dalton needs the situation to be perfect. That’s who he is. The Bears should know that.

In practice, Dalton has reportedly looked good when they’ve been near full strength. But most of the fans don’t see practice and the national media doesn’t pay attention to those reports.

Nobody should blame Nagy for sitting the stars; they need them healthy when the games matter. But if he’s that confident that Dalton is going to be the starting quarterback, why not sit him with the starters? All playing Dalton with backups did was anger fans because all they’re seeing is an immobile guy, behind a makeshift line, going three and out repeatedly. How is he supposed to succeed in that scenario?

Maybe Nagy is right. (It could happen.)

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These are (mostly) non-quarterback reflections on the weekend.

• Rodney Adams welcomed a baby girl Friday night, slept on a hospital couch, and then delivered one of the only bright spots Saturday for the Bears. It is a crowded wide receiver room but Adams should stick on the roster over Javon Wims, who just doesn’t have it.
• Adam Hoge argues for Justin Fields getting more first-team reps. But that’s not how the NFL works. Once the season starts, practice reps are severely limited and backups don’t get any. Fields most likely won’t see first-team reps until he’s named the starter. (Which should have happened a week ago.)
• Far better performance from Trevis Gipson Saturday but he still looks and plays slight. I question whether he can be productive against starter-level offensive tackles.
• This team has two viable kickers, with Brian Johnson looking like the real deal. Can they keep then both? Most have argued for sliding Johnson to the practice squad but I can’t imagine him being poached pretty quickly from there by a kicker-needy team, i.e. the Saints.
• Khalil Herbert is doing what late-round picks need to do for playing time: he’s making an impact on specials. Telling that he was involved beyond kick returns Saturday.
• Five players I thought acquitted themselves well:
  • Thomas Graham
  • Dazz Newsome
  • Sam Kamara (again)
  • Caleb Johnson
  • Charles Snowden
• Three players that don’t need to be around much longer:
  • Riley Ridley
  • Elijah Wilkinson at left tackle
  • Jesper Horsted (Do you really need Horsted and JP Holtz on the same roster?)
• What the hell has gotten into Pat O’Donnell’s leg? He is absolutely murdering the football in these preseason games. Could be a big season for him.
• Sean Desai should understand that how the Bills approached this defense is how most opponents will approach them. The Bears are great up front, weak at corner. Offensive coordinators are not going to let Mack, Hicks, Nichols…etc. ruin games. They’re going to throw on early downs and get the ball out quickly. They don’t need elite-level CB play opposite Jaylon Johnson, but they might need elite-level tackling on that side to get opponents off the field.

Bears’ HC Matt Nagy reiterated today that Bears’ QB Andy Dalton will start Week 1 at Los Angeles against the Rams, saying: “We need to see him in the regular season.”

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 21, 2021

What do the Bears think they are?

That’s the question that kept rolling through my brain as I watched Andy Dalton play quarterback on Saturday.

Do the Bears think they were this close to contending for a title a year ago and slightly better quarterback play will put them over the top?

Do the Bears think this roster is good enough now to run through Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and a Matt Stafford-led Rams in the tournament?

Do the Bears think Vegas has them all wrong? That they should have better odds than 65-1 to win it all? 35-1 to win the NFC? 6-1 to win the NFC North? 2-1 to make the playoffs? An over/under win total of 7.5?

The truth is, they must. Matt Nagy saying the team needs to see Andy Dalton in the regular season is so misguided, so out of touch with the reality of where this franchise currently resides, that no other explanation is possible. The Bears don’t need to evaluate a quarterback who has been in the league for a decade and consistently underwhelmed for the duration of that time. Andy Dalton is Andy Dalton. He’s perfectly capable of being capable. The Bears, with Dalton under center, have a ceiling of about nine wins and a wildcard weekend exit. (And even that would be an achievement.)

This season, the point of the entire enterprise, is Justin Fields. And it is abundantly obvious that no matter what Nagy saw from the young quarterback, he was never going to be given an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. Now, over these next three weeks of pivotal practices, Fields will be relegated to the second teamers and scout squad. If he gets his shot to take over the starting gig during the season, it’ll likely be that week he throws his first passes to Allen Robinson, Cole Kmet and Darnell Mooney in any structured kind of way.

It is malpractice, plain and simple.

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The Bears have played two preseason games. In the first, Justin Fields thoroughly outplayed Dalton. After that game, many expected Fields to be given increased exposure to the starters in practice. He was not. Why?

In the second game, with the exception of one bad throw that a Buffalo first, second or third-team corner easily knocks to the ground, Dalton was brutal. You want to blame the absence of Robinson, Kmet, Mooney and Montgomery? Go right ahead. But Fields came onto the field with a worse collection of skill guys and an offensive line of future real estate salesmen, and moved the team down the field. He used his athleticism. He used his mobility. He used his rocket for an arm. If any of the scrub receivers he was paired with could catch the football, he might have had a stat sheet similar to his first performance. Did Nagy see this performance and say, “It’s time to get Fields some reps with the starters”? Nope. He used the postgame press conference to name Dalton his official Week One starter.

He watched what we all watched. That was his conclusion. How?

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Thoughts on Thursday’s Practice (Closed to Public)

• Jason Peters practiced for the first time and Larry Borom returned to practice. Strong chance these are the starting tackles Week One, if Ifedi is unable to return on time.
• Andy Dalton is slated to play a quarter and a half Saturday, per Nagy. That means Justin Fields will see a ton of useless action. Having Fields play with backups, against third stringers, achieves nothing. (I hope my disappointment is resonating in those sentences.)

Looking Ahead to Saturday’s Practice Game

• Dalton is the story. The Bears could name Justin Fields the starter right now and that decision would be entirely warranted. Fields has done everything a rookie quarterback needs to do in the off-season to start on day one. The reason he’s not the starter is the presence of Dalton but that presence has to come with production. If Dalton plays poorly Saturday, the volume of the Play the Kid Chorus will grow louder, and louder, and louder.
• There really aren’t that many positional battles to watch on this roster, but there are a few areas possibly worth looking at:
  • With Khalil Herbert receiving Matt Nagy’s praise this week and having a strong camp, his roster spot is safe. Will they end their open call for kick returners and let Herbert settle into the gig this week? Does Artavis Pierce have any path to this roster?
  • Is Dazz Newsome ready to start returning punts? If not, this is a battle worth watching.
  • Robinson, Mooney, Goodwin, Byrd and Dazz are locks for this roster. Is there space for another wide receiver? Are these the final days in a Bears uniform for Wims and Ridley? Can Adams or Johnson make their way onto the practice squad? (You would think an endorsement from Fields would almost guarantee it.)

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Teven Jenkins Has Back Surgery.

• It is now unlikely the second-round selection will see the field this season. Back injuries are bad news for offensive linemen, and pretty much everyone else on the planet.
• Trading up for a player with known injury concerns, even despite the potential/ability, is a suspect decision. Often times draftniks will argue that players “fall” in the draft but the truth is many organizations don’t touch guys with lingering injury concerns. Ryan Pace has to own this failure, including the decision to release Charles Leno, leaving the club extremely vulnerable on the edge.
• Once again, I question why Matt Nagy says the things he says publicly. Why say the Jason Peters signing has nothing to do with Jenkins’ health FOUR DAYS before the latter has surgery? Does that give the club a competitive advantage? No. All it does it devalue any other public statements you make. After a while, everyone is going to just tune the coach out. (I’m pretty damn close.)
• There will certainly be some urgency inside the Bears when it comes to Jenkins’ recovery but their entire focus should be readying him for the 2022 season. If this is a redshirt season, so be it. He’ll still be an immensely talented tackle next off-season.

What Do the Bears Do if Andy Dalton Stinks on Saturday?

Justin Fields is the future at the quarterback position.

Justin Fields has shown command of the offense and composure at every stage of the off-season program.

The only thing seemingly keeping the Bears from giving Fields the first-team reps in practice and naming him the starter is the presence, and behavior, of Andy Dalton. (If the Bears only had Nick Foles on the roster, you think he’d be getting starter’s reps?) Dalton was signed with the “promise” of the starting gig and has been a model soldier during his short tenure with the organization. Dalton doesn’t have the resume to keep Fields at bay. He hasn’t lit up training camp. He’s been fine. He’s been…Andy Dalton. And that seems to be enough.

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[Yesterday was a rather uneventful practice for the Chicago Bears, and most of the coming practices will be the same. As the season approaches, the team will show less and less “relevant material” to fans/media. These are secretive organizations and this, outside of the lead-up to the draft, is their most secretive period.]

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Here’s the difference in watching, covering, writing about the 2021 Chicago Bears as quarterbacked by Andy Dalton and Justin Fields.

If the Bears lose to the Rams on opening night, say 17-10, with Dalton at quarterback, the headline is simple:

Bears Lose Opener to Rams; Fields Decision Looms

If the Bears lose to the Rams on opening night, say 17-10, with Fields at quarterback, the headlines can be many:

Bears Lose Opener to Rams; Fields Shines Late

Bears Lose Opener to Rams; Fields Struggles

Bears Lose Opener to Rams; Fields…etc.

With Dalton, the Bears are the thing they are. With Fields, the Bears are the thing we hope for them to be. And that’s the difference. Fields’ play in 2021, snap-to-snap, drive-to-drive, quarter-to-quarter, will be but the overture to what we all hope will be a great American musical. We’ll see bits and pieces of what’s to come.

The Bears are not winning the Super Bowl in 2021. Andy Dalton isn’t winning the Super Bowl. A rookie quarterback isn’t winning the Super Bowl. History tells us that. And this ain’t the group that’s going to buck history.

The future is the focus.

The future is Fields.

That future is exciting.

But until he plays, that excitement remains on the bench.