Rams’ Sean McVay: Must prepare for Bears to use QB Justin Fields on Sunday

Andy Dalton is the Bears’ starter Sunday against the Rams, but their coach thinks it’d be “naive” to assume Fields will stay on the bench all night.

By Jason Lieser

Justin Fields put up a 90.2 passer rating over his three preseason starts.

Turns out there’s really no point in Bears coach Matt Nagy being so ultra-secretive about whether he’ll use rookie quarterback Justin Fields in specially designed packages in the season opener Sunday night. The Rams are preparing for him regardless.

While Rams coach Sean McVay had high praise for Bears starter Andy Dalton on Tuesday, he also noted that it’s important to be ready for Fields.

“It would be naive for us not to prepare for them to be able to utilize him in some form or fashion,” McVay said. “But Andy is a winning quarterback in this league. . . . He does a great job, accurate, anticipation, recognizes the looks defensively, can straighten up protections. So Andy Dalton’s a really good quarterback, and it’ll be a great challenge.

Justin Fields is who the Bears’ thought he was — but what now?

“And then you see the ways that Justin made a lot of plays going back to his career at Ohio State [and] what he showed in the preseason. So I think you’ve got to be ready for either.”

Nagy has been adamant all offseason that Dalton is his starter and has at times said he hopes to keep Fields on the bench all season. Fields’ rapid development, however, has made it much more realistic that he will play sooner.

Fields completed 61.2% of his passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions and had a rushing touchdown in three preseason games.