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Bears sticking with quarterback plan

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Coach Matt Nagy reiterated Monday that veteran Andy Dalton remains the Bears' starting quarterback when healthy.

The 11th-year pro has missed the last two games with a knee injury he sustained Sept. 19 in a win over the Bengals. It's unclear whether Dalton will be ready to return for Sunday's contest against the Raiders in Las Vegas.

"When we work through this whole process, we've got to see where Andy's at health-wise these next two days," Nagy said. "That's important. Like we've said this whole time, when Andy's healthy, he's our starter. He's the 1. Justin [Fields] is the 2. Nick [Foles] is the 3.

"With Andy, the next two days are going to tell us a lot with where he's at, so we'll keep an eye on that and then we'll update you on Wednesday as to his status. I think it will be important for us here these next 24-48 hours to get a good feel of where he is."

Signed by the Bears as a free agent in March, Dalton has completed 73.5 percent of his passes for 262 yards with one touchdown, one interception and an 83.9 rating so far this season. He was listed as questionable on the injury report last Friday after being limited in practice all week before being downgraded to doubtful Saturday.

Fields, meanwhile, has made his first two NFL starts the past two weeks. The first-round pick rebounded from a loss to the Browns—along with the rest of the offense—by completing 11 of 17 passes for 209 yards in Sunday's win over the Lions.

"What's been great about these last couple weeks is Justin's had the opportunity to play and get significant snaps and he's grown from it," Nagy said. "Now, we've just got to see, 'Where's Andy's health at?' Honestly, the next two days will be revealing to us. Once that happens and we get a feel for where he is, then we as coaches decide, 'OK, where are we at right now? How do we feel he is percentage-wise to be able to go into that game as the starter?'"

The Bears are pleased with the strides that Fields has made, but they're sticking with the plan they've had in place since Day 1.

"I just appreciate that there's a lot of great things that he's done, there's a lot of things that he can learn from," Nagy said. "It's important to see that Andy's done a good job as well—it's unfortunate when he got hurt—moving the ball and the different things we were doing. I give credit to both of those quarterbacks because right now they're both doing a great job."

Check out the 50 best photos—taken by Bears photographers—from Sunday's Week 4 win over the Lions at Soldier Field.

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