Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields has been mentioned aplenty in the NFL trade rumor mill in recent weeks for one obvious reason.
The Bears hold the first overall pick in April’s draft and have the chance to take one of the two highly-touted QB prospects in Alabama’s Bryce Young or Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. If GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus wish to take one of those prized quarterbacks, Fields will most certainly be traded.
But on Sunday’s edition of SportsCenter (h/t Tyler Conway of Bleacher Report), ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that “most teams” believe the Bears will end up keeping Fields — and that they’ll look to trade the first overall selection:
“Now, Justin Fields, different scenario because the Bears have the No. 1 pick and most teams I’ve talked to do expect the Bears to keep Justin Fields. They say, look, this is a player who kept them in games they had no business staying in last year. But, if they have a high ranking on Bryce Young or one of these quarterbacks, they could certainly look into it. The expectation is that they’d move out of that No. 1 pick, but we’ll see.”
The Bears traded up to select Fields 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy were GM and head coach at the time, respectively. So if Poles and Eberflus decide that Fields isn’t their best long-term option, a trade is unquestionably the best option for all parties.
Fields was one of the few positives on a Bears team that finished with football’s worst record in 2022. He threw 17 touchdown passes and rushed for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns despite playing behind one of football’s worst offensive lines.
The last team to trade the first overall pick was the Tennessee Titans back in 2016. They surrendered that pick to the QB-needy Los Angeles Rams, who selected California product Jared Goff.
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Poles and Eberflus have plenty of options here with the top pick. Trade Fields and use the selection on a QB? Use the pick on a non-quarterback player? Or trade it? We’ll see how everything plays out in the coming weeks.
