CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Every year, it seems like the first of our weekly WBBM Morning interviews with Bears coach Matt Nagy comes on Labor Day. And every year, it seems like I'm the fill-in choice for Sports Director Josh Liss on Labor Day. Which means I get to do the interview. And this year, there was one thing I really wanted to know.
"Is Andy Dalton your starting quarterback until Andy Dalton loses the job - if he does?" I asked. "Or, is Andy Dalton your starting quarterback until Justin Fields takes it away - if he does?"
"Andy Dalton is our starting quarterback," Nagy answered, before moving on to a statement about how excited Dalton and the Bears are to get the season going.
The fact is, Nagy, and GM Ryan Pace, are giving very little information about when - if - the quarterback of the future will replace the quarterback of the now. Nagy has compared Dalton with Alex Smith, who Nagy coached in Kansas City. It's clear he's hoping Dalton can make smart decisions and steadily run the game plan as Smith did while Pat Mahomes got comfortable with the Chiefs.
Nagy, Pace, the whole decision-making tree is on something of a tightrope this year. Nagy is an above-.500 coach entering his fourth season, 12-and-4 in year one, followed by two 8-and-8 performances. He's taken the Bears to the playoffs in two of his first three years. But this is an old team by age, a team somewhat limited in what moves it can make due to salary cap constraints, and a team that traded away next year's first-round draft pick in order to move up and choose Fields. They intend to win now, and the calculation is that Dalton is the best choice to make that happen.
That doesn't mean we won't see Fields as soon as Sunday night. Fields brings mobility Dalton doesn't have, and it's so conceivable that the Bears might run a play or two designed specifically for Fields that Rams coach Sean McVay said he'd be 'naive' if he wasn't planning for it.
So off they go. The 17-week schedule begins in Los Angeles, Sunday night, on TV, but also on WBBM Newsradio and the Audacy app. Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer are back in the booth. It's our 22nd year bringing you the Bears - and at SOME point, we'll see 22-year-old Justin Fields under center.
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