After months of debate about who would be the Bears' starting quarterback in 2024, it has finally ended according to Ian Rapoport, as Chicago has traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional 2025 6th-round pick, which could become a 2025 4th-round pick. According to Adam Schefter, the pick will turn into a 4th if Fields plays 51% of the snaps in 2024.
This trade paves the way for the Bears to draft a quarterback, with most insiders and experts believing that will be USC's Caleb Williams. Fields was selected with the No. 11 pick in the 2021 draft in what has become one of the most dissapointing quarterback classes of all time. The former Ohio State Buckeye put up the best statistical season of his career with 2,562 yards, 16 touchdowns and completed 61.4% of his passes. The dynamic QB added 657 yards and four TDs on the ground during his third season.
It ends what has been a dissapointing tenure for Fields and the Bears after starting with so much hope in 2021. Fields is the most talented quarterback the Bears have ever drafted, putting up near Heisman-level seasons during his days at Ohio State. To state it unequivocally, the Chicago Bears organization failed Justin Fields in every sense of the word. Ryan Pace should have never drafted Fields in a year where his job was on the line. It killed any momentum Fields had under head coach Matt Nagy after the pair of them were fired. His successor, Ryan Poles, tore down the roster in 2022, giving Fields worse weapons than Bryce Young this past season with the Carolina Panthers. Yet, the former first-round pick didn't show enough improvement in year three to prevent this reality. Had the Bears not sniffed a top-3 pick in this upcoming draft, Fields would likely still be the starter heading into 2024. Yet with Poles fleecing the Panthers out of the No. 1 pick this year, it would have been hard for Poles to pass up drafting a quarterback two years in a row.
In what has been an off-season dominated by what Chicago would do with the No. 1 pick, the biggest question for the Bears is finally over.
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