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The Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields — it’s a sentence that we’ve known has been coming for months but still seems unfathomable.
Nearly three years ago, the Bears drafted Fields and the city fell in love with its quarterback. Now, with the team set to pick its next quarterback No. 1, and with Fields not performing at a high enough level — for many, many reasons — general manager Ryan Poles found a trading partner. He moved on.
Fields will head to the Pittsburgh Steelers and join Russell Wilson in their quarterbacks room. If he plays 51 percent of the snaps in 2024, the Bears get a fourth-round pick in return, otherwise it will be Pittsburgh’s sixth-round pick in 2025.
The compensation is jarring considering what Fields meant to the Bears, but also telling. We react to the trade and what’s next.
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Jahns: That’s it. It’s over. Just like that. The fierce conversation about the Bears’ QB future has ended. With Chicago in the middle of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the Bears traded Justin Fields to the Steelers. At first glance, the return is absolutely shocking: a 2025 sixth-round pick. At best, the compensation becomes a fourth-rounder based on his playing time. But that’s it. That’s it for a quarterback who was defended so vociferously by so many and so good in exciting spurts over three seasons. But it is what it is. Professional football can be a tough and ruthless business. The NFL determined Fields’ market. Not the Bears, nor their fans … nor all the talking heads who said the Bears should track back from the first pick and build around Fields. The Bears had to act on it eventually.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) March 17, 2024
Fishbain: Maybe the Bears could’ve gotten a better draft pick during draft weekend if a team didn’t get the QB they wanted, but Fields was running out of destinations. Ryan Poles said he wanted to do right by Fields, and the opportunity to join an organization like Pittsburgh and a coach like Mike Tomlin with a QB whom Fields has emulated seems like a good spot. And here’s the other part of this, Jahns — if the next Bears quarterback, presumably Caleb Williams, can be great, no one will care about the draft compensation for Fields. I don’t think he’s as bad as the market dictated, but he isn’t as good as several have thought.
Jahns: It’s difficult to do right by a player when the interest just isn’t there from the rest of the league. He was the last quarterback domino to fall. Pittsburgh emerged as a realistic option for him only after trading Kenny Pickett, the 20th pick in the 2022 draft. That said, the Steelers can still be a good team to go to if you’re looking to reset your career. They have Tomlin, a defense that’s one of the best nearly every season and a knack for drafting good receivers. But it looks like Wilson will get the first opportunity to do that.
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Fishbain: Will Fields be the Steelers’ starting quarterback in 2025 when they come to Soldier Field to play the Bears? It’s way too early to know what Fields’ 2025 will look like, and his career arc will be fascinating to watch. We saw that he could thrive in the right situations. We also saw that he wasn’t the type of quarterback who could consistently elevate those around him. Maybe we set too high a bar, but that’s what the great quarterbacks do, and clearly the Bears didn’t think he could get there, and they believe that Williams — or whomever they pick — can. I think Steelers fans can get excited about the potential just like Bears fans were. Heck, one of his best performances came in Pittsburgh on Monday night during his rookie year. What are you intrigued about from the next chapter of his career?
Can’t say thank you enough to the city of Chicago for taking me in and embracing me. Thank you to the entire Bears organization and ownership for allowing me the opportunity to be part of such a historic franchise. But most of all thank you to my all my brothers that I played… pic.twitter.com/fT1dORwFU5
— Justin Fields (@justnfields) March 16, 2024
Jahns: First, I don’t think that’s setting the bar too high. That’s the expectation for first-round picks. They have to be held to it. Organizations do that. Just look at what happened to the other quarterbacks in his draft class. All that said, there are plenty of reasons why things didn’t pan out for Fields. The Bears, as an organization, did fail him. I feel like I’ve written that a handful of times. But I also believe that we’ve seen enough from Fields, particularly this past season, to accept that the Bears had to move on with the first pick. As for Fields, his next chapter in Pittsburgh will be interesting. His story is far from over. The intangibles that made him beloved by fans and his teammates will result in another opportunity to prove himself. It’s a matter of when, not if.
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Fishbain: There’s a saying in the NFL: “Players know.” There’s no doubt Fields has a ton of respect from his now-former Bears teammates, and players around the league. They know how gifted he is. They appreciate his work ethic and leadership. You can see it in their reactions on social media. But they also understand it’s a business. It’s a business that requires winning, and the Bears believe they have a better chance to do that with someone else under center, someone on a rookie contract, too. It’s an unfortunate end for Fields in Chicago, but he’s only 25. He’s got a long way to go in his career. And this transition should, eventually, lead to an exciting moment for the Bears franchise. The roster is as deep as it’s been since at least 2018, and they’re going to have the top quarterback prospect as their guy. It’s time for a new era.
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
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