Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears appeared to be heading for a split. But after the first two days of NFL free agency, that’s been put into question now.
The Bears own the top pick in this year’s draft after becoming trade partners with the Carolina Panthers last year. As a result, conventional wisdom (and plenty of other things) have suggested that the team will take Southern Cal quarterback and 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams first overall. This would be what leads to the split with Fields and the Bears, although some wondered if that would happen well before Draft Day.
Now? Well, not so much.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport provided an update on the situation. Your mileage may vary on whether it was a good update.
Why haven't the #Bears traded Justin Fields? Well: This isn't a Justin Fields situation, it's a Caleb Williams situation. Let me explain… pic.twitter.com/zmOAIqA26O
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 12, 2024
“I know a lot of talk has been about Justin Fields. This is not a Justin Fields discussion, this is a Caleb Williams No. 1 overall pick discussion,” Rapoport explained. “The Chicago Bears are committed to doing is fully evaluating the quarterbacks they could take at No. 1, including Caleb Williams. They were at the combine, they met him there. They’re going to be in full force at Caleb Williams’ pro day a week from tomorrow. They’re going to have him to their facility to visit them.”
“This is too important a decision to go, ‘Yes we’ll take this guy, we’ll trade the other guy,’ so until all that, they’re going to do the full evaluation,” he said.
Rapoport suggested that the team will probably trade Fields closer to if not on Draft Day now. It’s a fascinating sequence, but it’s one that also clearly has no end in sight yet.
The NFL world was curious about this explanation though.
"we thought more people would like our price for him, they didn't, now we're kinda screwed" https://t.co/fVQFy1vMyL
— robert (@RobertZeglinski) March 12, 2024
https://t.co/lpm4zRZuiH pic.twitter.com/ljHcpKXGUu
— nick shlain (@electricsnuff) March 12, 2024
If this is true, which I doubt, then Ryan Poles really played himself. The little value that he has will continue to drop https://t.co/1gpTGyMfzG
— KDG 🧀🦌 (@Official414) March 12, 2024
This is a hilarious attempt at a spin
The absolute best they could come up with was "no actually they don't even want to trade him yet because they don't know which qb they're gonna draft" https://t.co/DlDIQUrIVF
— Carlton (@CrispyCarlton) March 12, 2024
This ain't matching up to what Ryan Poles said about making a decision sooner than later to be fair to Fields…something ain't adding up in Chicago…almost sounds like they're begging for a trade up https://t.co/EmvozxCNA4
— Dre (@DCSportsDre) March 12, 2024
