Chicago Bears football is back on Sunday and will feature an exciting showdown between Year 2 quarterbacks Justin Fields and San Francisco 49ers' Trey Lance at Soldier Field.
To kick off opening weekend, our very own Bears Insider Josh Schrock hosted a Reddit AMA on Friday to answer fans' questions within the Bears subreddit community. Schrock was previously the 49ers Insider for NBC Sports Bay Area before joining NBC Sports Chicago in May.
Here are the top questions and answers from the AMA:
Week 1 score prediction? u/lookkoolsports
Schrock: "I want to take the Bears because of the weather being the great equalizer but I’ll go 23-20 49ers."
Everyone sees the Bears as one of the worst teams in the league. What are your thoughts on this? I know we have a young receiver room, but do you think JF1 (Justin Fields) and the new regime lead some upsets? u/greendanger28
Schrock: "On paper, the Bears' roster is in the bottom third of the league. That's the hand Ryan Poles was dealt and he smartly chose to take his medicine right away instead of kicking the can down the road. The offensive line is young and unproven and, yes, the WR corps is not great. But I do think the soft schedule coupled with Fields in Getsy's scheme can lead to more wins than most people are projecting. I'm not saying eight or nine wins are on the horizon, but would I be surprised if they win seven games with one or two surprises in there (49ers, Eagles, Cowboys)? Absolutely not. But that will dependent on two things: Can Fields elevate the rest of the offense and can the defense force turnovers? I don't think this is a three- or four-win team. It can be better than the sum of its parts if Fields plays at a near-elite level."
NFL
Is Fields or Trey better? u/IxClownShoes
Schrock: "It's impossible to say at the moment. We've seen a lot more of Fields than Lance, but what we saw of Fields isn't a fair judge of his talent, given Matt Nagy's inability to scheme to his strengths. Right now, I'd give the edge to Fields as the better quarterback, but Lance is in arguably the best offensive system in football with an offensive maestro who will be able to scheme things to his strengths. Lance is such an unknown. He has a huge arm, but the accuracy has been iffy and with only 19 career starts between FCS and the NFL, we don't know how good he is or can be. I'd give the edge to Fields at the moment. I do think Getsy's system will allow Fields to thrive and take a big leap in Year 2. But I'll admit Lance's ceiling is likely higher than Fields, but it's unclear if he can reach it."
Schrock's full AMA can be found here.