The odds to starting QB for the Chicago Bears in Week 1 look pretty much cut and dried right? Not so fast.
Unibet and SugarHouse are both offering props on who will take the first snap of the regular season when the Bears visit the Rams at SoFi Stadium in a Sunday night opener on September 12.
Chicago is big odds to be back there for Super Bowl LVI next February, and how the team fares in 2021 will likely depend on how quickly Justin Fields can beat out Andy Dalton for the job as starting QB.
Dalton the hot favorite
Veteran Dalton was underwhelming in Dallas last season, starting the bulk of games after Dak Prescott went down as the Cowboys finished 6-10. But despite that he’s a -500 to be in charge of the offense when the Bears open up in Inglewood.
Fields meanwhile is +300, which might present some intriguing value. The former Ohio State signal caller remember is the guy who buys time for head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace. Their jobs depend on him – so the sooner he gets his feet wet the better.
It’s noteworthy that when Nagy faced media earlier this week he refused to rule out Fields beating out Dalton in the race for the job in training camp. In many ways you should be worried if he doesn’t.
It was a surprise when Fields fell all the way to 11 before Chicago traded up nine spots with the Giants to finally take him off the market.
Earlier this offseason it looked like Dalton was a gimme to be the starter come Week 1 – now, not so much.
Fields has rich potential
Fields has rich potential and some experts had expected him to go in the first three picks of the draft – potentially to San Francisco. But the 49ers instead settled on North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, leaving the Bears with an unexpected gift at 11.
Chicago moved on from the Mitch Trubisky experiment in the offseason – it spent a ton of draft capital to move up and select Trubisky in Round 1 of the 2017 Draft. But he failed to convert on the promise the Bears saw, and is now on a one-year deal as backup to Josh Allen in Buffalo.