NEWSLETTER
Even when there is certainty at the top of the Chicago Bears quarterback depth chart, the team still finds a away to have a conundrum at the position.
Justin Fields has been given medical clearance to play, meaning Chicago’s QB1 returns to his post Sunday against the Packers. But who backs up Fields on the depth chart is a big question-mark at this time:
"I'm not going to get into the specifics of everything," Nagy says when asked if Dalton has a broken bone in his left hand. Says it's about monitoring pain and swelling. Dalton will not practice today.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) December 8, 2021
We knew Andy Dalton suffered a serious hand injury on Sunday. Dalton went down with the injury after tackling a Cardinals defender after an interception. Talk about adding insult to injury. Or in this occurrence, it’s technically adding injury to insult. In any case, it’s not good to throw an interception *AND* injure yourself on the same play. That’s a double whammy of sadness. And we knew it was significant enough to where we thought (for a moment) Nick Foles might actually start a game this season. But that Dalton could be dealing with a broken hand is pretty gnarly. Once again, Head Coach Matt Nagy was dodging straight answers like he was training for The Matrix re-boot. Nevertheless, Dalton not practicing is a pretty big deal (as far as QB2 news is concerned).
For what it’s worth, Dalton didn’t miss any time in the loss to Arizona. But maybe the adrenaline was pumping enough to where the injury really wasn’t bothersome until *AFTER* the game. Dalton being unavailable for practice hints at Foles being QB2. At least, for the time being. For what it’s worth, Foles is arguably the healthiest quarterback on the Bears’ roster. He hasn’t taken a snap since the preseason came to an end and hasn’t been put in the line of fire in the handful of games he has been active for this year. And hopefully, it will stay that way. Because if Foles has to play, it means some bad things have gone down.
