Chicago Bears: 3 early similarities between Justin Fields, Patrick Mahomes

3. Chicago Bears rookie Justin Fields earns the backup spot early on

At the moment, Fields is second overall on the depth chart behind Andy Dalton.

Mahomes ended his first offseason as the Chiefs’ number two quarterback behind Alex Smith. The only difference was, it took Mahomes until mid-August to earn that title. Until that point, Mahomes remained No. 3 on the depth chart — and remember, Nagy was his offensive coordinator.

So, thinking about this situation with the Bears and Justin Fields isn’t too far-fetched to comprehend. Nagy is keeping his veteran number one on the depth chart and will wait until that veteran either flounders or Fields reaches out and takes the job.

One of the differences in both of these guys being No. 2 on the depth chart in their respective rookie seasons is the fact that Fields is considered much more NFL-ready than Mahomes was as a rookie. Nobody knew the magic of Mahomes at the time. It took that first full year watching Alex Smith for Chiefs fans to finally see what Mahomes was capable of, and then the rest was history.

How will Fields’ situation play out? Will Dalton actually play the entire season this year? Most would say probably not, so that will be a big difference in how their rookie seasons end up. There will be a significant difference, as Fields likely gets the chance to play at some point this year.