Rookie QB Odds: Fields, Jones, Lance All Week 1 Backups?

• Justin Fields has +225 odds to be the starter in Week 1 for the Chicago Bears.
• Mac Jones has +275 odds to start Week 1 for the New England Patriots.
• Trey Lance has +300 odds to be the Week 1 starter for the San Francisco 49ers.

CHICAGO – While some rookie quarterbacks (Trevor Lawrence) are obvious Week 1 starters, others are not. However, there are three rookie quarterbacks who could make a serious difference to their franchises, even if they don’t start in Week 1.

Each of these QBs are not expected to start in Week 1 for various reason, but a solid training camp could make the difference.

Justin Fields, Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears finally took a solid QB prospect, and the idea of Fields aging into a role as an elite QB behind Andy Dalton is perhaps a tantalizing one.

However, Fields is more talented than Dalton, and there seems to be a genuine chance that he manages to take the Week 1 starting job away from him.

Dalton was brought to Chicago under the expectation that he would start this season, but that was before they were able to draft Fields.

Fields’ ascension is still not particularly likely, but the gap in talent between what he can do and what Dalton can do is stark.

This is certainly a situation worth keeping an eye on for NFL betting fans.

Mac Jones, New England Patriots

Jones seems like an obvious fit for the Patriots – a solid, steady pocket passer who has demonstrated great accuracy in most areas of the field.

He had some problems with deep ball accuracy in college, although they were often irrelevant as he was throwing to perhaps the most elite receiving corps in college football.

Now, with the Patriots, he’s expected to sit behind Cam Newton, but he could fit the way the New England Patriots play better than Newton.

Newton deserves a fair shake at QB, as it seems possible that some of his poor performance last season could have been caused by his bout with COVID-19.

Still, Jones is a tantalizing prospect given the way the Patriots have played for the last 20 years – he’s certainly more Brady-like than Newton, which is not to say he’s better.

Trey Lance, San Francisco 49ers

Lance was drafted with the third pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, which does seem to imply that the 49ers are willing to move on from Jimmy Garoppolo at some point.

The question is how quickly they are willing to make that move – Garoppolo has been a good QB for the 49ers, even taking them to the Super Bowl two years ago.

Moreso than Dalton or Newton, Garoppolo is a proven quarterback who can be expected to perform on an above-average level most of the time.

This makes Lance’s job harder, as Garoppolo is the kind of QB that’s hard to move away from for a rookie. Thus, Lance has the longest odds of all of these rookies to be the Week 1 starter, despite being a higher pick than them.

The 49ers are expected to be an elite team this year, which makes the QB controversy all the more interesting in the context of Super Bowl betting.