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Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields was the star of the show in his team's 20-13 preseason win over the Miami Dolphins.
Although Fields opened up the contest on a sluggish note, he showed glimpses of his promising potential as the game went on, which included anchoring a pair of touchdown drives. Overall, Fields notched one key showing against Miami as he finished 14-20 to go along with 142 passing yards, one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown.
Bears head coach Matt Nagy comes away from the game pleased with how Fields responded to early adversity against the Dolphins' well-rounded defensive unit. Nagy spoke after the game on his initial takeaways from Fields' first-ever action in an NFL preseason game.
Article Continues Below“The one thing that you felt from Justin… was that he was extremely calm the whole time,” Nagy said.
“He did a great job of bouncing back, which is what he's always done.”
Even after a mere preseason game, many are already calling for Nagy to officially name Fields as the Bears' starting quarterback for their Week 1 opener against the Los Angeles Rams. Nagy is not ready to go there just yet, as he is still assessing the Bears' quarterback depth on a day-by-day basis.
“If you go back to the start of training camp and as we drafted Justin and we have Andy in here and we have Nick [Foles], I've continued to say that all we want to do is we want them to be the best quarterbacks they can be,” Nagy said. “Don't worry about tomorrow, don't worry about next week, don't worry about the future, just worry about today.
“I thought that Justin did a great job of worrying about today and he played smart football. He made plays and again it is preseason and we all understand that there's variables involved in all that but at the same point and time if you go back and look, is he doing what you want him to do? Absolutely.”
Fields also touched on his performance after the game, where he noted that even with such a promising showing, he still has “room to grow” with his play.
Nagy made clear ahead of the Bears' game against the Dolphins that Fields would get “a healthy amount of reps” in preseason. Thus, Fields has a pair of preseason challenges ahead with the Bears' key games against the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans. Strong outings in these two games will only strengthen his chances of possibly being named as the Bears' starting quarterback as early as Week 1.
