In moving on from Justin Fields earlier this month, Bears general manager Ryan Poles accomplished his stated goal of doing right by the former first-round quarterback. The latter recently spoke about the tepid trade market which was in place and the efforts made by the team to send Fields to a situation with a potential path to a starter’s role. 
The Steelers moved quickly in acquiring Fields for a conditional sixth-round pick not long after adding Russell Wilson. The decision to trade away Kenny Pickett after Wilson’s arrival set the stage for the Fields swap and with it the complete overhaul of Pittsburgh’s QB room. A recent report indicated the Steelers’ offer was not the best one made to Chicago, something Poles confirmed when speaking at the league meetings.
“There were other teams,” Poles said, via Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago. “The Steelers were just an opportunity where it was almost like more of a… they have a starter with Russ, but there was more of an open competition it felt like from my perspective where there were other opportunities where there were some quarterbacks that were either veteran guys or young guys that had already been paid, so it would have been a tougher situation for him to get on the field.”
Fields is already known to have preferred going to Pittsburgh, but further clarity on his other potential landing spots has emerged. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor reports the 25-year-old was also considering the Vikings, Raiders and Falcons prior to the start of free agency. Kirk Cousins‘ decision to depart Minnesota and join Atlanta left the Falcons as a backup-only destination; the same could have held true in the case of the Vikings given their addition of Sam Darnold as a short-term Cousins replacement.
The Raiders (previously connected to a Fields trade) already have Aidan O’Connell in place, and the team added veteran Gardner Minshew as a bridge starter or high-end backup. Vegas could be in the market to draft a passer next month, and as a result a Fields deal would have left the Ohio State product in a murky situation. That also would have been the case, of course, had Poles elected to keep Fields while still selecting a quarterback with the first overall pick in the draft.
“I know there was a lot of talk about having Justin there and drafting a quarterback as well,” Poles added. “We had a lot of deep conversations and I got some really good guys on my staff to really dig into how that would play out in terms of the locker room, how would that play out with a young guy that needs a lot of reps, how would that play out with just the command and leadership that you need in that position and we felt like it was best to probably move on and allow a young quarterback to come in and work into that role.”
With Fields no longer in the picture, Caleb Williams remains on track to hear his name called first on draft night. A QB room featuring both passers would have created an awkward situation, but the former is now in place to compete for a No. 1 in a new environment while Chicago is positioned to start fresh under center.
OK time to stop talking out of both sides of your mouth Poles. So if you’re going to blast RG III for saying what he did which is basically true. Then you can’t turn around and say that you ” Want to do right” By Fields in todays NFL. If you say you want to do that it implies that RG III was right. In that the Bears haven’t done many QB’s on their team any favors. You just can’t say that with a straight face. Now RG III is no mental giant either, And it’s not that they can’t do that now, But for now Griffin is right. So until the Bears prove him wrong, You have to believe what he said.
Griffin could tell me that the sun rises in the East, But I’d still go look for myself.
You lose a lot of credibility if after 4 years of doing little to support a QB you stand up and announce “We’re going to do right by this guy”. Perhaps Poles has actually convinced himself the organization put their heart and soul into developing Fields. Are they going to wait 4 years to do right by Williams? If that’s the case, Bears fans can expect the tradition of underachieving to continue.
What are the odds on apples being in that role four years from now? Slim at best?
Poles took this job knowing Fields could be a bridge QB. Pace destroyed the roster, Poles shed all the awful cap decisions Pace made, with JF1 on a rookie deal. If Fields made the jump jn 2023 (added RB, WR, OL last offseason) he could look to keep him but JF1 just didn’t make the jump from 2022 to 2023. Now we have a kid coming in on a rookie deal, but also is a better passer walking into Halas Hall than JF1 was walking out to Pittsburgh.
You don’t draft a QB in the first round with the intention of making him a bridge. The time to add support (RB,WR,OL) and do right by the guy is early in the development process…not 3 or 4 years down the road.
He didn’t “confirm” the Steelers offer wasn’t the best one. He just confirmed there were other offers. He did apparently send him to a place Fields wanted.
As a GM, you want that reputation with players that you’re not a jerk. Players see that and respect it.
It looks like he did right by him. And yes, players see that. Not sure he passed on a better return, but still… Seems like a stand up guy.
The organization traded a first round pick for him. I’m sorry, Poles, the Bears owed him nothing. You owed it to the organization and the fans to get the best possible return for him.
Exactly. To imply you ” Did right by Fields” Just by saying that you basically confirmed you did him wrong. You can’t have it both ways.
Poles continues to show his inexperience as a GM.
Poles has made some good moves, and some clunkers (such as the Claypool trade for their 2nd rounder), why is Pettis back and why is Velus Jones still on this roster?), but how is that really any different than any other GM in the league?
I think what others have said is true, Fields was not ‘his’ guy, he was hoping he could be successful with this team as it was set up but it was not meant to be, as the team had to be torn down to the screws. He likely hoped that Fields would be like Mahomes in the sense that he could somehow ‘will’ this team to a .500 record despite having nothing other than him on it in terms pedigree. While he did better, as did the team, in ’23 it was not good enough.
Now all that being said, what WILL doom Poles is if he misses on Williams especially with all of the upgrades this off season that Fields did not have the luxury of. What will really doom him, and the org as a whole is if he misses on Williams, and Fields goes somewhere else and succeeds (and that means even being good enough to get his team into the playoffs).
Many of those same Bears fans have done nothing but openly complain about how bad Fields is. If Fields is as bad as they say, they should consider themselves fortunate they received what they did. You can’t have it both ways.
As far as the organization goes, if they believe Williams is better, then the pick they spent on Fields is a sunk cost. Again, they put themselves in this position by deciding to make this move. They’re signaling they don’t believe in Fields. So yeah, do right by the guy and show the organization has class. It goes a long way.
For the record, I would have ran with Fields. I like his leadership abilities. I like his makeup.
Are you saying you like the cut of his jib? Does he have moxie?
The rest of the NFL dictated what Field’s ‘worth’ was. Not Poles. If he was so valuable, they would’ve kept him. Just move on.
Fields also had the situation of his fifth year option having to be exercised, which is why most teams failed to give the Bears what they wanted, especially when there still are questions about how good he could be still. As much as the narrative has been warped to say ‘well the league did not want him’ its more about control and money than I think about the questions of his talent (at the very least they go hand in hand). If this was before the 23 season I think more teams would have been inquiring with the Bears and maybe giving them more in terms of draft picks.
Fields is gone, and Poles better pray that Williams is ‘the’ guy, especially with the way this town is about Bears and their QBs.
This is hilarious. “We really wanted to give him a chance to play… just not here.”
Well lets be honest, I would have loved to see Fields try again with the roster as it sits now, and after the draft, than before ’23, and I think it would have happened had the Bears not gotten the #1 overall pick in the draft again. Now Williams may or may not be the guy that gets the Bears their first good QB since Cutler, but they have to fall with the masses and pick the guy, at least Im guessing that is what Poles is thinking right now.
The NFL is ridiculous. They all want young QBs on cheap rookie deals so they can spend on the players around them. How often does this work with QBs? Then they pay them 45 mil?
It’s clearly best for rookies to sit and learn that the NCAA isn’t the NFL. But they constantly throw these rookies out there on bad teams.
A team gets a 5th round taken away for dirty doings and it’s supposed to be a big deal. But teams flush top 10 pick down the toilet because they can’t develop them properly.
Some QBs just can’t handle the NFL, no matter how good/bad the team or coaching staff is. Are we going to give BB credit for TB12s development?
They should give BB credit as Brady was not thought highly of when he came out of college.
In many ways, the system matters as much as the QB.
I don’t understand how the Vikings didn’t throw a 4th or 5th to give him a shot. If he does good you give him his 5th yr option which comes out to 2yr 28mil, if he does bad you cut bait after 1yr 3.5mil. both better options then giving darnold 10mil to suck.
These QBs were chosen ahead of Fields: Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Gardner Minshew, Sam Darnold, Tyrod Taylor, Drew Lock, Jimmy Garappolo, Mitchell Trubisky, Jacoby Brisset, Jameis Winston, and Marcus Mariota.
What does that tell you?
NFL GMs must be stupid because guys like Lock, Trubisky, and Mariota are horrible.
Most GMs are drafting guys the scouts claim have strong potential so the real blame belongs to the coaches who are inept at unlocking that potential or simply crush any confidence the rookie might have by throwing him to the wolves.
Ryan Pace is stupid. If you look up Stupid in the dictionary his picture is there.
Unlike the rest of those guys, Fields had to have a 5th year exercised before the 2024 season, and that year would have cost the next team 22m. Stop making it sound like it was only a question of ‘talent’. Like everything else in the NFL, it was more about the money and control.
If Fields does have a career year wherever he goes and they did not exercise the option of him they they are paying dearly, if they option him and he stinks then they are on the hook in 2025.
Yknow, fairly sure all of the anti-Fields guys whined about this option the Bears would have, but then conveniently forget about it as to a possible reason why other teams would not want to give up a lot.
Vikes have been built around an immobile pass first QB the last several years, so shifting to a mobile offense would be tough.
Hopefully, they adjust to a quicker offense since someone else is paying $50 mil to have a guy stand in the pocket and blame the OL for getting tackled.
Immobile QBs that made the playoffs last year: Stafford, Goff, Minshew, Mayfield, and Purdy.
Only Stafford won a Super Bowl, but it isn’t close to often. Also baker looks like the flash compared to Cousins (like the WB flash not the trashy DC movie version)
Rudolph.
I doubt the Bears would have traded Fields to the Vikings unless they would have offered the moon to make his acquisition…
As a Steelers fan I can’t wait to see how they plan to use him while Russ is starting.
Wilson tweaking his ankle on the first snap of camp would be the best thing that can happen for the Steelers.
One of the QB’s they got might still have upside and the other does not.
See what you’ve got.
Vikes would have definitely given up the rights to Warren moon for fields straight up. He’s like almost 70.
Easy trade, you have no idea what you’re saying. He was an okay QB, but…
Division rival, the ask price goes up just for that. You don’t want to get burned by an ok QB twice a year…
Justin Fields/Mitch Trubsiky stans need to sit down. The more you whine about your hero getting traded, the dumber you sound.