NFL fans and analysts from around the league have been going after the Bears organization ever since head coach Matt Nagy named Andy Dalton the starter over Justin Fields.
During Thursday morning’s episode of Get Up on ESPN, host Mike Greenberg became the most recent to criticize this decision and the apparent reasoning behind it.
Greenberg is appalled that people are justifying the benching of Fields by saying it follows the “Mahomes method.”
“If I hear one more person describe the Bears handling of this QB situation as ‘following the Mahomes method,’ I might just have to lose my mind! These two situations are absolutely NOT equal. … Andy Dalton does NOT equal Alex Smith,” he explained.
“If I hear one more person describe the Bears handling of this QB situation as ‘following the Mahomes method,’ I might just have to lose my mind! These two situations are absolutely NOT equal. … Andy Dalton does NOT equal Alex Smith.”
—@Espngreeny pic.twitter.com/gx9ETuAEL1
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 9, 2021
Through his rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes started just one game for the team — spending the vast majority of the season as a backup option. Some believe that Nagy, who was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator at the time, is simply following this same mold by benching Fields for the start of his rookie year.
Greenberg argued that these two situations aren’t even remotely comparable.
Through the 2017 season, Chiefs’ starting quarterback Alex Smith absolutely lit up the NFL with a league-leading 104.7 passer rating — becoming just the second player in history to log 4,000+ yards and five or less interceptions in a single season. Dalton on the other hand is coming off a disappointing season as an emergency option for the Dallas Cowboys.
Greenberg also compared Fields and Mahomes as incoming NFL prospects, noting that the former has much higher expectations heading into his rookie season.
If Nagy truly follows the “Mahomes method,” Fields won’t start a game until the final contest of the season.
But, unless Dalton puts together an incredible early-season performance, it’s hard to see the No. 11 overall pick staying on the bench for too long.
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