Former player discusses a Chicago Bears locker room divide, Justin Fields

The Chicago Bears are only one week into the 2021 NFL season, yet drama has ensued all around. The main drama is centered around the quarterback position and head coach Matt Nagy. We saw just how inept the play-calling was last week versus the Los Angeles Rams. It was great to see the team move the ball up and down the field, but when you only throw five to eight-yard passes, the points never seem to add up.

Andy Dalton never really got a real shot to prove if he’s the guy or not. That really is not fair to him or this team. Despite how boring the Bears’ offense was versus the Rams last week, more blame needs to go to Matt Nagy than Dalton. That said, Dalton did not do himself any favors either. Throwing the interception in the end zone to start the game was something a rookie would do, yet he’s Matt Nagy’s choice at quarterback over Justin Fields. Why?

Most people believe it was some backdoor handshake promise. Others tend to think this is Nagy’s way to try and secure his job going forward. No matter the reason, they are all a bunch of nonsense because whatever the reason, Nagy is making the wrong choice.

We don’t know how much Ryan Pace is involved in the decision-making promise of starting Andy Dalton over Justin Fields, but whoever is involved, they too are wrong and they are starting to find themselves on an island in this thought process. The bigger problem here is that there is likely a divide within the locker room now. Some are likely to believe that Justin Fields should be the starter, while others understand and are okay with Dalton under center.

Everyone but Matt Nagy thinks Justin Fields should be the Chicago Bears starter

A former NFL player weighed in on the situation giving insight as to how some, or maybe many (probably more like all at this point) players are feeling inside the Chicago Bears locker room. On a recent podcast episode of ‘Big Man Bets’ on the new BetSided site, Nick Mangold, former offensive lineman, weighs in on how he would be feeling in this situation.

Remember those words — devastated and angry. We are only one week into the season, yet everyone, including my seven-year-old son who knows very little about football and cannot watch more than 20 minutes of a game, understands and knows that Matt Nagy is not putting the team in the best situation to win. Alright, maybe my son’s attention span is not good enough to know or care that, but he has asked me multiple times why Justin Fields is not starting. Mainly because he hears me complaining about it constantly.

Mangold spoke about a recent report he read that the soonest Justin Fields will start is Week 4. He believes that Fields is electric and you see guys rallying around him, that’s what you need, and believes the Chicago Bears should jump into the fire with Fields rather than waiting. He spoke about how if he was an offensive lineman inside that locker room, he would be angry knowing that the team is waiting, just to wait. Orland Pace (former Bear by the way), seems to agree with him.

He, like all of us, knows what the team has with Andy Dalton. The waiting needs to be over, just start Justin Fields. It is that simple.