However, the Bears have been very vague in regards to Dalton’s status. No official ruling on his Week 3 status has been made just yet.

One particular expert, though, has a different theory than most. Dr. David Chao, an ex-NFL team physician for 17 years and now known as one of the top names in the sports medicine industry, offered his professional analysis in a video he recently posted.

“Everything about the bone bruise being non-contact is consistent. It’s the ends of the bone jammed against each other – the articular cartilage. The articular cartilage is precious. When it’s jammed together like that, there’s usually several weeks of rest. This is why it’s Justin Fields [time].”

Chicago Bears quarterback Andy Dalton may see Justin Fields take the reins for several weeks due to his injury.

The entire video can be seen below.

Dr. Chao says something that all Bears fans have been thinking since the moment Dalton was injured. He talks about the moment when Dalton is cleared and healthy. Does Dalton resume his starting job like coach Matt Nagy insists?

“…by then, Fields will probably have sealed the job,” Chao says.

“It won’t be Andy Dalton for the next several weeks. October, late October, is probably his best timeline for return.”

This is the one and only scenario that could have reversed course on Nagy’s plan to stick with Dalton during Fields’ rookie season. If Dalton is hurt, and remains out for a few weeks, then it’s Fields’ job to lose.

Should Fields start the next 2-4 games, and perform well enough to keep this team competitive, there will be less of a chance that Dalton can re-take his starting job. There will have been a rhythm established with Fields in practice for weeks at that point, as well as an obvious in-game chemistry established.

In short, there is no turning back now. This is Fields’ team, whether Nagy likes it or not. Nagy can continue to pull as many publicity stunts as he wants to, but the reality is, he’s going to be forced into making the best decision for his team, even if he doesn’t believe it to be true.

This line of thinking makes absolutely no sense and precisely shows how little attention was paid to Justin Fields’ actual performance versus the Bengals on Sunday and how little credit he was given for overcoming the obstacles in his way.

The Chicago Bears offense looked dangerous with Justin Fields at the helm.

Now, going into week two, here were the elements working against Justin Fields:

He ran the scout team all week, which means he took minimal (if any) reps with the first-team offense.The plays installed for this week were suited to Andy Dalton’s skill set and not Justin Fields, for who the coaching staff only prepared a small package of plays for.

Despite all this, Fields flashed every bit of his potential against the Bengals. Due to his limited practice time with the first-team receivers, he and Darnell Mooney missed out on two major connections, one of which was a surefire TD. Additionally, he had what would have been the throw of the week, dropped by Allen Robinson and another completion to Cole Kmet called back due to offensive pass interference.

Furthermore, due to likely limitations with the playcalling, Fields had to do his damage from the pocket. There were almost no designed rollouts to simplify his reads by eliminating half the field and he also lacked the same support from the run game that Dalton had supporting him in week one.

This is what makes the criticism of Justin Fields extremely alarming. He was thrown into a situation no one in the Chicago Bears’ organization anticipated and managed the game following a game plan not tailored to his strengths and without developed chemistry with any of his weapons or his own offensive line.

To top it off, when the game was on the line and a play needed to be made, he delivered by picking up a first down with his legs on third and nine while breaking a tackle that would have almost certainly resulted in a sack or potential fumble had most other QBs been carrying the ball.

Now, the most significant thing I want to mention about the game is the interception he threw. First off, this is a mistake that all young quarterbacks are going to make in their careers. No amount of running scout team is going to help someone avoid this “welcome to the NFL” moment.

The linebacker faked his rush and dropped into coverage to be in the perfect position to intercept Justin Fields’ pass that was headed to the right place. These are the kinds of mistakes Fields will make once and a while but probably not often throughout his career.

Dach was the third overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. It may or may not have been the right pick but at minimum, he is going to be a great center. He has already shown the tools of being a star player but he needs more consistency in his game.

So far in his NHL career, he has 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points in 82 games. However, two of those goals and eight of those assists (ten points) came in 18 games last season. The season was short because of COVID-19 and Dach suffered an injury during the World Junior Championships ahead of the season so he wasn’t able to really hit his stride.

The Chicago Blackhawks need Kirby Dach to take a big step this upcoming season.

With a full 82 game schedule on the horizon, Dach appears to be in line for a big year. He is a big kid at 6’4? and 197 lbs so you know he can use that to his advantage. When you combine that with his pure hockey skills, you could have a very good power forward in the middle of the ice. Putting all of these skills and assets together should help turn him into a stud.

Dach, with Toews easing back in, could be the top center a lot of the time. That could mean wingers like Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, and Dominik Kubalik could see time with him at different points in the season. All of them would really help him and his development as they can all score goals that Dach sets up for them and they can also help Dach score some himself. This could lead to a lot of extra wins.

With Dach dominating in the middle of the ice, it will make things hard on the other teams. They will, of course, game plan for Toews if he is fully healthy and playing well. That means that if Dach is just as lethal (if not more) than Toews, the Hawks can create many mismatches. It is clear that Dach taking the next step is a big part of 2021-22 Chicago Blackhawks’ success.

Throughout OTA’s, it was Andy Dalton. Throughout training camp, it was Andy Dalton. Every second of Fields’ journey, he’s been the backup. Nagy has yet to give Fields a fair shot to earn the starting job, and it’s almost as if his failure to do so is coming back to bite the head coach.

Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, Dalton suffered a knee injury and will now likely miss at least Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns. Nagy will have no choice but to roll Fields out there as the Bears’ starting quarterback — and now the kid gets his chance.

Chicago Bears rookie Justin Fields has an opportunity to put Nagy’s continued incompetence on full display.

The number one thing that stood out in the game against Cincinnati wasn’t Fields’ interception. It wasn’t his deep shot to Allen Robinson which was ultimately dropped. It wasn’t his dime ball to Darnell Mooney that resulted in another drop.

It wasn’t even the beautiful completion he did have to Mooney, or the first down conversion he ran for in order to secure the victory.

The biggest takeaway from Sunday was the fact that Fields hasn’t been given enough reps with the first team offense. As obvious as it’s been to practically the entire football world, Nagy has continued to disallow his rookie to have adequate time with the ones. As Fields said himself, he’ll just use this week’s practice to correct the things that need to be corrected.

Nagy has continued to reiterate the fact that Dalton is his starter, and that’s fine. However, he has to know that at some point this season, it will be Fields’ time to shine. If he doesn’t understand that, then he is missing the train completely. He’s lost.

Now, with a full week of practice with the first team, Fields has his shot. This is his time. This is his opportunity to prove that the last five months have been a complete waste of valuable time by his head coach. Failing to give Fields enough time to gain chemistry with the first team is going to be Nagy’s greatest regret — Fields just needs to prove that on Sunday.

This seems like something everyone has been waiting for Fields to do. He just needed his shot. Now that it’s finally here, all eyes will be on the rookie.