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Bears wisely plan to keep Justin Fields

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With reports Chicago is “leaning toward” moving the No. 1 pick, Mike Florio and Chris Simms explain why as long as Justin Fields is all-in with the Bears, there’s no reason the Bears shouldn’t be all-in with him.

The news that the Bears are “leaning toward” trading the first overall pick means that the Bears are sticking with quarterback Justin Fields.

Which means that the Bears haven’t lost their minds.

As explained in Playmakers, draft picks are lottery tickets. When you have a winning lottery ticket, you don’t trade it in for more lottery tickets.

Fields has proven to be a winning ticket. He’s the most significant running threat at the quarterback position in the league. He has the potential to be one of the best overall quarterbacks in the league.

Why move him and take a chance on an unproven commodity at the quarterback position? History has shown -- repeatedly -- that it’s a crapshoot at the top of round one.

Here are the No. 1 overall picks at quarterback over the past 50 years: Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, Jameis Winston, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford, JaMarcus Russell, Alex Smith, Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, David Carr, Michael Vick, Tim Couch, Peyton Manning, Drew Bledsoe, Jeff George, Troy Aikman, Vinny Testaverde, John Elway, and Steve Bartkowski.

It’s nothing close to a no-brainer that a quarterback taken first in the draft will become a great player. It’s not quite 50-50, but it’s closer to that than 75-25.

In Fields, the Bears have a sure thing. A guy around whom to build. A potential short-list franchise quarterback.

Here’s the caveat. The Bears should be all in with Fields, but they need to be sure that Fields is all in with them.

His recent comments to Pardon My Take about wanting to play in a dome, which the Bears may not have during his career, could be the first sign that he wants to take his talents indoors. And he’s only a year away from being eligible for a new contract. What will he want? Will he want out at some point?

Before making a final decision on whether to keep Fields, it would be helpful to have a crystal ball that reveals the future of the relationship. But those issues will arise with any potential franchise quarterback, whether it’s Fields or Bryce Young or anyone else. Based on the skills and abilities we’ve seen to date, it would be ludicrous for the Bears to not keep Justin Fields.