The Bears have been adamant that Andy Dalton is their starting quarterback, and rookie Justin Fields‘ job will be to learn from the sideline. But Rams head coach Sean McVay says his defense will be ready for Fields.
McVay indicated that he thinks the Bears may have a package of plays designed to utilize Fields’ talents, even though the Rams are preparing primarily to face Dalton.
“I think 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, does a great job. I really have seen a lot of film of Andy, even going back to when Jay Gruden was his coordinator at Cincinnati. So, very familiar with what a really good quarterback he is. 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. And then you see the ways that Justin made a lot of plays going back to his career at Ohio State, what he showed in the preseason. So, I think you got to be ready for either.”
Fields is a much better runner than Dalton and would present a different challenge to defenses, and the mere fact that the Rams are spending time preparing to see Fields may be helpful to the Bears.
Sean McVay: We’d be naive not to prepare for the Bears to use Justin Fields in some way originally appeared on Pro Football Talk