The Bears officially traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Steelers earlier this month, clearing the way for them to select a quarterback — presumably USC’s Caleb Williams — at No. 1 overall.
Speaking to the media at the annual league meeting, General Manager Ryan Poles called dealing Fields “probably one of the harder things I had to do.”
“But I really felt like that was best for our organization and best for Justin,” Poles said, via Josh Schrock of NBCSportsChicago.com. “I said that at the combine. I wanted to do right by him. We did that.”
While Fields was the No. 11 pick of the 2021 draft and started 38 games for Chicago over the past three seasons, the Bears were able to get only a conditional sixth-round pick for him from the Steelers. Poles admitted the market for Fields was not as robust as he might have expected.
“As you do research and we have conversations you have to kind of adjust to the market,” Poles said. “But I think just with how other teams are built, because if you look at the beginning, there are probably teams that are looking at the draft for guys to fill in. On the back end, playoff teams probably have someone in place. So really it was a smaller pool of teams.”
The Bears also could have kept Fields along with drafting a QB, but that apparently was not an attractive option for Chicago.
“I know there was a lot of talk about having Justin there and drafting a quarterback as well,” Poles said. “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.”
So, the Bears moved on — despite the fact that Poles noted he felt like Fields was “making strides and improving.”
“The problem is, and that’s what I try to explain, it wasn’t Justin vs. one of these rookies. It’s really the timeline and how much runway you have,” Poles said. “To get a guy up off the ground, you need to support them with as much talent as possible. Then that fits. It takes so much cap space, which is a good thing if you get to that point.
“But they have to be the reason you start winning. Then it’s harder to add the talent around them. You can look around the league, and it happens a lot. The teams that can sustain success through that period I think do a really special job.”
In three seasons, Fields has completed 60 percent of his passes for 6,674 yards with 40 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. He’s also rushed for 2,220 yards with 14 TDs.
