The year before Ryan Poles stepped in as the Bears’ general manager in 2022, his predecessor mortgaged the franchise’s future — a future that ultimately wouldn’t include him — by trading up to draft quarterback Justin Fields 11th overall.
Ryan Pace gave up what would’ve been Poles’ first-round pick (No. 5 overall) in his first draft class. That actually would’ve been fine if Fields had turned out to be the game-changing quarterback the Bears have long craved.
In a perfect world, Fields would’ve been an NFL version of the dynamic player he was at Ohio State, and Poles could’ve built around him. Instead, the Bears are restarting yet again this season with No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
While that eventually might be a blessing in disguise because of Williams’ sky-high ceiling, the Fields pick and his mishandling by the Bears will go down as one of the team’s costliest misadventures.
In somewhat of a rerun of how it went with Mitch Trubisky before him, the limit on how good Fields could be wasn’t nearly as lofty as the Bears envisioned. But they also fell far short of getting the most out of him. They can’t repeat those errors with Williams.
Fields was quickly forgotten after the Bears traded him to the Steelers for next to nothing in March, signaling their intent to move forward with Williams. The hype around Williams, which has been building since his 2022 Heisman Trophy season at USC, drowned out any laments about Fields’ departure.
But it’s important for the Bears to understand how they hampered Fields to avoid doing it again. Even the missteps that weren’t Poles’ and coach Matt Eberflus’ fault are instructive.
Errors in judgement
The first error, and most insurmountable problem, was Pace’s misevaluation of Fields’ and Trubisky’s talent.
In 2017, Pace jumped for a one-year starter from North Carolina ahead of Clemson All-American and national champion Deshaun Watson and future three-time MVP and champion Patrick Mahomes.
Fields was the fourth quarterback chosen in his draft class, and setting aside all the unfavorable circumstances he encountered with the Bears, he only showed he could be a productive passer in spurts. He finished in the bottom third of the NFL in passer rating all three seasons and during that span had the second-highest interception rate and most fumbles (bad snaps are counted as fumbles by the quarterback, so not all of those are squarely on him).
Last season, with imperfect but viable talent around him on offense, he had only 197.1 passing yards per game — 22nd among the 29 players who threw at least 300 passes — and the Bears averaged only 21.8 points in his starts. In 38 career starts with the Bears, he completed fewer than 20 passes 31 times and failed to reach 200 yards 25 times.
No matter how many things were working against him the last three seasons, Fields should’ve done a better job rising above them. The rest of the league seemed to agree. The Bears got only two trade offers for him and settled on a conditional 2025 sixth-round pick from the Steelers that will escalate to a fourth if he plays at least 51% of their snaps.
The Steelers, though, are one of the soundest and most respected organizations in sports. They have a future Hall of Fame coach in Mike Tomlin. It’s a night-and-day difference from Fields’ arrival at Halas Hall. From Day 1, and maybe even before that, Pace and Matt Nagy botched his development.
They had a plan to essentially redshirt Fields for his first season, but an injury to Andy Dalton in Week 2 blew that up. Fields was unprepared, and so was Nagy.
Mismatches
Between Nagy being unable to tailor his offense to suit Fields’ skills and Pace’s personnel misjudgment, the team cratered, and there was no clear indication Fields was on his way up. Repeating a problematic cycle, the Bears cleaned house and stuck a new general manager and coach with the old quarterback.
In that regard, some bad timing was at play for Fields. He didn’t seem like the style of quarterback Poles wanted. Every backup he signed was much more of a classic pocket passer who could operate the quick game, and the additions of Williams and Brett Rypien this year were more of the same.
In a rushed hire at the start of their tenure, Poles and Eberflus brought in ill-fitting offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. While they seemed to get along well personally, it’s safe to assume neither Fields nor Getsy would’ve chosen the other as his ideal partner.
It should help that new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron came aboard with Williams and will be the first one shaping him in the NFL. Whereas Fields had to unlearn some bad habits that came from Nagy’s offense and playing behind an unreliable offensive line, Williams should be a step ahead by starting with a proven offensive coordinator.
Williams also walks on to arguably the best Bears roster since 2018, and they are stacked in just the right places to help him — another improvement from the way they ushered Fields into the league.
At wide receiver, they brought in absolute technician Keenan Allen to pair with high-level playmaker DJ Moore, then drafted an elite prospect in Rome Odunze, who can grow with Williams. They also have tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift, meaning Williams will surely have options when he drops back and can count on everyone being in the right spot at the right time. It’s a huge advantage over Fields, who played with a lot of practice-squad-level receivers.
And Williams should be able to drop back semi-comfortably. The O-line isn’t perfect, but Pro Football Focus ranked it No. 11 in the league going into this season. It’s good enough.
Lessons learned
The Bears also look like they’ll be very good on defense, giving Williams some margin as he grows. He might get away with some games in which he doesn’t play well and the offense manages only 17 points. A good defense can turn some of those into wins. Conversely, in the Bears’ 15 highest-scoring performances with Fields at quarterback, they went only 7-8.
Everything about their process with Williams seems sounder. Their evaluation of the entire 2024 draft class was deliberate and complete. Even with Williams as the obvious choice to everyone else, they thoroughly vetted Jayden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy and the rest. There were no assumptions, nothing silly. And when they onboarded Williams, they did it right with a properly outfitted roster and carefully chosen coaching staff.
The Bears appear to be doing what everyone has been screaming for them to do for four decades: learning their lesson.
As long as everybody’s on board with sharing, and it seems like they are, that creates a lot of options for Williams and a lot of opportunities for the offense.
“I had a great year, but you’re gonna have a few misses here and there due to the weather,” he said. “You have to have almost a perfect season to compete with dome kickers.”