On March 16th, St. Patrick's day in Chicago, the inevitable finally happened. The Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional 6th round pick in 2025. With the “condition” being if Justin Fields plays 51% of snaps, then that pick turns into a 4th rounder.
Like most of Chicago on St. Patrick's day, I was barely coherent when the news broke.
“Caleb-Williams” chants erupted at the pub I was in and for the first time since last year, the Bears felt all the way back. I mean come on, Caleb Williams, D.J Moore, Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet and a backfield led by Deandre Swift? Surely we beat Green Bay at least once this season.
Then I proceeded to spend $250 on Irish Car bombs and passed out somewhere between 7:30 and 9:00pm, the actual time remains a mystery.
Once I awoke on Sunday around noon and slammed 3 glasses of water consecutively, as my body demanded I do. I faced a realization that struck me to the core.
Justin Fields is gone.
A feeling of sadness that is best described as when a family relative passes away. A rather distant relative, of course, but family nonetheless.
As I sat there, barely functional, a smirk came across my face as I realized this was ultimately the best move, not only for the Chicago Bears but for Fields as well. No one hoped that Justin Fields would have worked out in Chicago more than I did.
From a personality perspective, he had everything a city could want out of their franchise QB. The passing ability is just simply not there. I see Justin Fields' absolute ceiling being Lamar Jackson, incredible playmaking ability on the ground and can win a lot of regular season games but just can’t make the big throws when need be. Definitely a starting QB, however, not a Super Bowl winning QB.
Now, the question remains, “Did the Bears get fleeced?” Surely if I speak so highly of H1M, you would assume that I was on the side that the Bears indeed got fleeced. Wrong. The Bears failed Fields.
Who knows, if Fields came into the same situation the Bears have created for Caleb Williams, maybe he would have blossomed. He got drafted onto arguably one of the worst Bears teams in franchise history with zero front office stability and was expected to turn the whole franchise around. It would have been extremely unfair to keep him, knowing that they were going in a different direction, just for value purposes.
If the Bears held out to deal him until midseason with the hopes that a starting QB gets injured, like many people wanted, imagine the PR nightmare that would be. Every week it would be “Justin or Caleb,” which would only lead to conflict in the locker room and kill Fields' confidence.
Fields needed to be gone before Caleb Williams arrived. Although I hoped initially to get at least an unconditional fourth round pick, I’m just glad this saga is over. The Bears will get their QB of the future and Fields gets to go to Pittsburgh which he reportedly wanted to go to if he was traded.
I will not be burning my Fields jersey - I will be rooting for him from a distance. Pittsburgh should be happy, not only did they get Justin Fields, they got Justin Fields with a chip on his shoulder. Could be dangerous for the AFC North.
P.S- RG3 posted a video on “X” saying that Caleb Williams should pull an Eli Manning and refuse to play for the Bears. Potentially the dumbest thing I have ever heard from a “Sports Media” member. Ryan Poles is creating the best possible situation for a “generational talent” QB to come into.
There is no way Ryan Poles is not abundantly aware of the fact that this transition needs to be executed to perfection. Stop using our past QB’s from past regimes to judge our current regime's ability to develop a QB. That is not fair in the slightest.
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