Updated: Bears name Dalton starter … Update: Two more QB dominos fell earlier today as both Jacksonville and Denver announced their starting QBs for the first week of the NFL regular season. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Jacksonville will give the ball to Trevor Lawrence, the first player selected at the 2021 draft; Lawrence had been dueling with incumbent starter Gardner Minshew. Meanwhile, Denver will go with Teddy Bridgewater when the Broncos open the season in New York against the Giants. Bridgewater had been in what has been described as an ‘even-steven’ battle with Drew Lock for the job. One large QB domino fell in the past 24 hours or so as Chicago confirmed that veteran Andy Dalton will be the team’s starting QB when the season opens next month. Dalton had been dueling with rookie Justin Fields, the 11th player selected at the 2021 draft, for the job. Fields has impressed, but at least for now the Bears have opted to stick with experience. However, with just final pre-season game to go, there are still a half dozen QB battles going on around the league. Jacksonville, for example, has still not confirmed that Trevor Lawrence, the #1 player selected overall this past April, will be the starter when Jaguars open their season in Houston on September. Lawrence has technically been competing with Gardner Minshew for the job, although it will be a shock if he doesn’t get the start. Meanwhile, both the 49ers’ Trey Lance, the 3rd player picked this year, and New England’s Mac Jones, selected with the 15th pick, are still very much in contention for their respective team’s QB job. Jones, in particular, has a chance to get a bit of a leg up on veteran Cam Newton, who is sidelined through Wednesday’s practice because of a covid protocol violation. And the battle between veterans Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill in New Orleans also will go down to the wire, although the former appeared to take the lead in that duel with a strong performance against the Jags on Monday. Same for the contest in Denver between veterans Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater. In other QB developments around the league, Atlanta has signed Josh Rosen, presumably to replace backup QB A.J. McCarron who was lost for the year with a knee injury earlier this week. Rosen, who was selected by Arizona with the 10th pick overall at the 2018 draft, was released by San Francisco earlier this month.
