Bears Still 'Gathering Facts' About Extent Of Fields' Ribs Injury

CHICAGO — The severity of Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields’ ribs injury remains in the fact-gathering stage, which leaves who starts for the Bears on Thanksgiving against the Detroit Lions undetermined.

Coach Matt Nagy would not specify the nature of the injury but did not rule out the possibility the rookie suffered broken ribs in Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Reports released Sunday night indicated that the team do not believe a break was involved, but instead that Fields bruised his ribs. An Instagram video posted by one of Fields' friends on Sunday showed the rookie laying on his side on his phone and asked the quarterback if he had broken any ribs.

"No, sir," Fields said in the video.

Veteran Andy Dalton finished the game and threw a late touchdown pass to provide the Bears with a lead before the Ravens drove down the field and scored the game-winning touchdown with 22 seconds remaining. The loss, the Bears' fifth straight, dropped Nagy's team to 3-7 on the season with little time for prepare for Thursday's game in Detroit.

Nagy told reporters Monday that the team would prepare scenarios for either quarterback to play Thursday against the winless Lions. Dalton said after Sunday’s loss that he would prepare during the short week as if he is going to start.

Dalton, who was initially named the Bears starting quarterback at the start of the season, had not played since Week 2 when he was injured. Nagy reversed field and named Fields the starter after initially saying that the starting job was Dalton's to hold onto once he was healthy.

Dalton finished Sunday's game by completing 11 of 23 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns.

Nagy indicated the Bears don’t want to take chances with making matters worse by rushing Fields back. The Bears believe the injury is just with Fields’ ribs and not his spleen as some reports suggested Sunday after the game.

“There is the safety issue, too with just making sure that he doesn’t get to the point where things get worse,” Nagy told reporters. “So we’ve got to monitor that. We’ve got to keep an eye on that.”