Justin Fields Says It’s ‘Disrespectful’ Bears Fans Are Booing Andy Dalton And Chanting His Name

The Chicago Bears are going to start their season in Los Angeles against the Rams with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback. That is the decree of head coach Matt Nagy, despite a fan base that is desperate to see rookie Justin Fields be handed the reins.

This has been the plan all along, but as the preseason rolls along, Dalton’s performance has not been particularly inspiring and Fields has provided enough glimpses into his immense talent to get the Bears faithful very excited about his prospects and impatient at the idea of someone else starting the season under center. This all reached a fever pitch on Saturday when the Bears hosted the Bills in their second preseason game of the season and got thoroughly trounced by Buffalo, who started ex-Bear Mitchell Trubisky to rub salt in the wound.

The scoreboard in a preseason game isn’t all that important, but seeing Trubisky carve up the Bears (20-of-28, 221 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs) while Dalton mostly struggled to get anything going with the Chicago offense pushed fans over the edge. They booed and chanted Justin Fields’ name, giving the rookie a standing ovation when he finally entered the game in the third quarter. After the game, the rookie made clear that he wasn’t thrilled with that response, calling it “disrespectful” to Dalton and hoping that Bears fans would cheer whoever was on the field (via NBC Sports Chicago).

“I really think it’s kind of disrespectful to Andy, them cheering my name out like that,” Fields said. “Just cheer him on, you know? That’s not helping Andy play better, to cheer my name. That’s not doing none of that.

“My advice to them would be just cheer whoever’s on the field.”

Dalton played all of the first half and finished 11-of-17 for 141 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, but 79 of those yards came on one TD pass and the offense stalled on the first few drives of the game — Dalton had a clever quip that he didn’t hear any boos after the touchdown, so as long as he produces he’s not worried about it. It wasn’t entirely on Dalton, as the offensive line issues for the Bears have been very apparent, but that also has underscored for some why Fields should play. Fields was 9-of-19 for 80 yards through the air, making a couple terrific downfield throws but likewise struggling to consistently move the ball passing. The difference, though, between he and Dalton was his 46 yards rushing on four attempts, all scrambles that helped extend drives and pick up first downs.

There are two schools of thought with a young quarterback and a bad offensive line, and there’s merit to both. One is that if he misses on processing what he sees at the line, it could lead to disaster — as we saw when he failed to go hot on an overload blitz on Saturday and took a scary helmet-to-helmet shot.

On the other hand, Dalton is not mobile enough to extend plays and avoid pressure in the same way as Fields, which leads to faster checkdowns or throwaways in order to get the ball out of his hands. The rookie, instead, has a serious weapon in the form of his legs and that too was on display on Saturday.

Both arguments have validity, and it’s clear that, at least in the beginning, Nagy is choosing to start the veteran and keep his rookie on the bench to learn a bit more before throwing him into the fire with a shaky offensive line. However, Fields’ request that Bears fans will accept that if the offense struggles under Dalton will likely go unheard, even if the plan is somewhat understandable.