Caleb Williams, YOU are a Chicago Bear! Well not officially, but it’s more or less official now that the Bears have traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for what essentially amounts to a bag of potato chips.
If Fields can’t make any meaningful strides forward as a pocket passer in Pittsburgh, he’ll likely be holding a clipboard behind veteran QB Russell Wilson.
That is, unless new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith really wants to commit to the run, as he’s been overzealous about doing in the past. Nobody this side of reigning MVP Lamar Jackson is much better to deploy on designed QB runs than Fields, and at the very least, he could be a fun gadget player to occasionally plug in.
It’s a relief that the Bears finally pulled the trigger on this trade. With the benefit of hindsight, they’d have been better served to do it sooner. Fields’ market bottomed out, and what once could’ve perhaps been a Day 2 draft pick to use this year instead becomes a likely late Day 3 asset in 2025.
To this writer’s surprise, a lot of people are flocking to Twitter to support Fields in the aftermath of this deal — and are applauding the Steelers for overhauling their QB room with more dynamic players.
Look at all the people still bullish on Fields’ upside despite his middling to little improvement as a player across three NFL seasons. Lots of excuse making being carried out on his behalf.
This should be the only sensible take on Justin Fields’ tenure with the Bears: Yes, the organization did a poor job of surrounding him with the proper talent, resources, and coaching to develop into a viable franchise quarterback. And, if he actually was a viable franchise quarterback, Fields would’ve shown a greater ability to overcome dysfunction. Chicago has never really developed a good QB if you think about it.
Harsh reality to accept for the Bears, and it certainly lends itself to Fields-related excuses, but with a talent like Caleb Williams entering the fold and another top-10 pick in tow, Chicago is about ready to blast off in the NFC. Glad we can finally put to bed the “JUSTIN IS STAYING!” narrative.
No question Williams is the No. 1 overall pick now. If it was a 99.9% certainty pre-Fields trade, it’s 100% certain now.
A couple of Fields’ now-former teammates in wide receiver DJ Moore and defensive end DeMarcus Walker were among those to weigh in on the trade:
Going a little deeper into the Steelers’ side of this, I get that they probably wanted to have two QBs with similar dual-threat skill sets, hence the additions of Wilson and Fields. Alas, they both have the same glaring weakness.
They can’t throw with anticipation over the middle of the field, causing them to hold the ball too long and take an exorbitant amount of sacks. Hard to win like that in the NFL on a consistent basis.
I can’t imagine Arthur Smith is doing gleeful cartwheels about going from the Desmond Ridder/Taylor Heinicke s**t sandwich of QBs he had in Atlanta to this Fields-Wilson combo.
Then again, all Pittsburgh needs to do is lean on the run game, have Wilson/Fields not commit stupid turnovers, and ride their elite defense to yet another non-losing season under Mike Tomlin. We’ll see how that all works out. I’d be kind of stunned, frankly, if Wilson was the Steelers’ Week 1 starter in 2025, or if the team was willing to pick up Fields’ fifth-year option at over $25 million. Since Tomlin refuses to post a losing record, the Steelers won’t be high enough in the ’25 draft to grab a new QB. Tough state of affairs for one of the NFL’s model franchises, who just shipped 2022 first-round QB Kenny Pickett to Philly.
Good luck to Justin Fields. No shade. No hate. His athleticism is undeniable. If he can ever piece together the nuances of footwork, mechanics and anticipatory accuracy, he can be a superstar. Colossal “IF” there. I’ll play you out with Fields’ farewell to the Windy City as he looks ahead to the next phase of his career.
