Pace, however, spent six years demonstrating that he's a blind squirrel who sometimes stumbles into an acorn. And the Patriots are still the Patriots: Bill Belichick can handle a quarterback competition any way he chooses. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have also earned lots of leeway when handling the Trey Lance/Jimmy Garoppolo situation, especially since Lance is more of a mystery box than a quarterback right now. Douglas has been cast as both Adam Gase's adversary and the 'real brains' behind the Super Bowl Eagles and can coast on his not-entirely-earned reputation for another year. Saleh also has low early expectations and plenty of benefit of the doubt. Meyer is a Designated Franchise Savior with carte blanche, a long leash, and a mandate to rebuild. Nagy and Pace aren't like Urban Meyer or Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas.

Declaring Fields the third-stringer, on the other hand, would strain both Pace and Nagy's credibility to the breaking point. Inserting Fields as an immediate de facto starter, like Trevor Lawrence for the Jaguars or Zach Wilson with the Jets would A) be admitting that the acquisitions of both veterans (particularly Dalton, signed in March and heralded as the starter) were short-sighted blunders, and B) create early expectations for Fields that could get a coach and general manager fired if the rookie stumbles out of the gate. They're like cartoon cats balancing the fine china on their tails and whiskers after overturning the dinner table while chasing the mouse. Now he and Nagy must create the illusion that it was all part of some master plan. Pace built the Bears quarterback depth chart out of two terrible decisions and one stroke of almost outrageous fortune. If they hope to keep their jobs, they must make it look like they're the only ones qualified to handle it. Nagy and Pace have every reason to make Fields' development appear to be as complex as differential calculus. Nagy and Ryan Pace claim to have found it and ordered Fields to squeeze into it, at least temporarily. The quality difference between Dalton and Foles appears infinitesimal, like a limit approaching zero. Not to go off on a tangent, but the Bears' quarterback situation reminds me of a calculus exercise I used to teach: estimating the value of a derivative at, say, x = 3 by finding the slope of the secant line between 2.99999 and 3.00001. Nagy really threw his rookie quarterback into a tight window. How on earth did Matt Nagy manage to parallel park Fields between Dalton and Foles? That's not a spot on the depth chart, it's a speck. Talk about being the meat in a mediocrity sandwich. Justin Fields entered Bears training camp wedged between Andy Dalton and Nick Foles on the Bears' quarterback depth chart.

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