Justin Fields had plenty of complaints about Matt Nagy during his rookie season. He referenced multiple times that it was never made clear to him who the leader should be. He wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be him as the 11th overall pick or if he needed to acquiesce to Andy Dalton. That confusion was one of many reasons Nagy’s offense flopped. Nobody knew who the leaders of the Chicago Bears locker room were supposed to be.
That is because, according to Nagy, they changed every week. Easily his most baffling practice as a head coach was to have rotational team captains each week. For one game, it might be Akiem Hicks, Allen Robinson, and Pat O’Donnell. The following week it would be Germain Ifedi, Christian Jones, and Marqui Christian. None of it made sense. Captains are supposed to be the leaders of the locker room. They are the guys everybody looks to for guidance. When a coach makes everybody a captain, it defeats the entire purpose of the title. Not everybody is capable of being a leader.
Thankfully it appears Matt Eberflus is putting an end to that practice.
The Bears will have four season-long captains and then a weekly honorary captain. We'll find out on Wednesday.
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) September 5, 2022
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Our Week 5⃣ Captains pic.twitter.com/im9GFlMDRP
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 8, 2021
Our #MNF Captains pic.twitter.com/Coff9I1dKB
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 6, 2021
The Chicago Bears will finally have a clear set of leaders.
Traditionally it’s the players who vote for them. So it can often be a peek inside the locker room as to who garners the most respect. It will be a great way to see if what people have been saying about Justin Fields is true. Teammates have insisted for months the young quarterback is emerging as a leader. If so, validation should come on Wednesday with his first official captain patch.
Best guess? Fields, Robert Quinn, Roquan Smith, and Patrick Scales will be the four permanent choices. Fields represents the offense, Quinn and Smith the defense, and Scales the special teams. Some other names in the running could be Cody Whitehair, David Montgomery, Cole Kmet, Jaylon Johnson, and DeAndre Houston-Carson. Either way, it will be welcome to see some stability in the Chicago Bears’ hierarchy for once.
So the Bears are getting a new stadium when they can’t even get a new championship title..?
Yeah – but can they run, throw, tackle and block?
Can we get the Honey Bears back???? Please
Another tradition they can dump right now is that stupid rah-rah college siren!!!
Fields and Mooney are my bets. Likely Roquan and JJ on defense.