Bears general manager Ryan Poles never seemed serious as he loosely floated the idea of using the No. 1 pick in the draft to take a quarterback and trading Justin Fields. It was an unconvincing bluff, and Poles even admitted it wasn’t fooling anyone when he said last week no teams had called to ask what it would take to acquire Fields.
The speculation, which has been going since late in the season when it became clear the Bears would be picking near the top of the draft, ended Friday when Poles predictably unloaded the top choice.
In a swap with the Panthers, the Bears will pick No. 9. They also landed an extra second-rounder this year (No. 61), a first-rounder next year, a second-rounder in 2025 and three-time 1,000-yard wide receiver D.J. Moore. While dropping all the way to ninth takes the Bears out of the running for the elite prospects, the overall haul is extremely helpful.
Most significantly, though, the move solidifies their commitment to Fields. And as enticing as Alabama’s Bryce Young or Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud might be, that is clearly the right call.
Fields is not the star the Bears need him to be, but he is on track to get there. Whether he can take the next step is unknown, but his trajectory points upward after 25 starts. He has shown enough that the Bears should be eager to see how far he’ll go.
Adding Moore certainly helps, and the Bears now have three promising receivers with him, Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney — all affordable and 25 or younger. And while their No. 9 pick is likely too late to get a dominant defender like Alabama defensive end Will Anderson, the Bears have enough quality selections — second-rounders at Nos. 53 and 61, plus the first pick of the third round at No. 64 — to find several instant starters.
Fields has a long way to go, but there’s no denying he has progressed. And the fact that he’s advanced whatsoever is impressive given how much dysfunction and ineptitude clouded his first two seasons.
He was drafted by a general manager and coach who thought it best to put him on the slowest possible track — likening it to a red-shirt year — despite Fields dominating college football at the highest level. Then, when he was rushed into action two weeks into the season, the Bears had no idea how to scheme to his strengths.
They finally cleaned up that problem by bringing in Poles and coach Matt Eberflus, but they still saddled Fields with a cast of teammates that couldn’t help him much. The budget-conscious Bears went into last season with one proven playmaker at wide receiver in Darnell Mooney and one certainty on the offensive line in veteran Cody Whitehair.
Fields was asked to make something out of nothing, and often he did. He became the third quarterback ever to rush for 1,000 yards, and his unparalleled ability to escape was a big reason the Bears — with minimal talent offensively — were 13th in the NFL in third-down conversions at 40.9%.
The downside, of course, was that Fields was one of the worst passers in the NFL. He was last among qualifying quarterbacks in yards passing (149.5 per game), 25th in passer rating (85.2) and 31st in completion percentage (60.4). The Bears have spent the last several months analyzing how much of that is his fault and how much is theirs for putting poor personnel around him.
Trading out of the No. 1 pick, and consequently closing the door on offloading Fields, shows they believe he’ll make a significant leap once they have proper pieces in place. And with all the picks — plus Moore — they got in this deal, the Bears now have everything they need to make that happen.
