The Bears’ journey to determining their 2024 starting quarterback continues. After the team reached an agreement to trade the No. 1 overall pick to the Panthers before free agency started last year,
fans should be on the lookout for a Justin Fields move soon. The Bears trading their three-year starter and keeping the pick remains the likely path, but they have not yet committed one way or another here.
It would surprise to see Chicago trade the top pick for a second straight year, given the buzz Caleb Williams has generated as a prospect. The team could, however, fetch more in a trade for that draft pick than it could obtain in a Fields swap. That adds intrigue to the team’s decision, with contractual matters a key factor as well.
“I’m a supporter of Justin because I got a chance to work with him when I was commissioner of the Big Ten conference,” Bears president Kevin Warren said during a WGN interview, via NBC Sports Chicago. “He is incredibly talented. He is smart. He works hard. And he wants to be a great NFL football player. And now he just needs to make sure he has the support around him.
“… Justin has a rare combination of intelligence, of size, of strength and speed. You forget how big of a man he is until you’re up on him. He’s not a small man. I just think every year he’s going to continually get better.”
Warren, who initially observed Fields during his two-year run as Ohio State’s starter, represents an important part of this process. Although GM Ryan Poles runs the Bears front office, Warren serves as the bridge between ownership and the team’s football ops. Poles said last month the Bears were in a unique situation with regard to their quarterback decision. It is not known how much input Warren will provide the third-year GM on this front. Given Poles’ job description, any pushback from the second-year president would be notable.
“One of the things about Ryan and I’s working relationship is the fact that we’re in this together,” Warren said. “I know he’s spending every single day thinking about not only that decision but also who to draft at No. 9 and our current roster and what we’re gonna do in free agency, what we’re doing from a contract negotiation standpoint. I’m sure he’s already starting to play out the draft in his mind.
“I look forward to going to the Combine here later this month and then getting the chance to spend some time together because we’re in a very, very unique space in time in the Bears.”
The Bears hired Warren in January 2023, bringing him in a year after hiring Poles and HC Matt Eberflus. While Warren was initially described as a strictly business-side addition, rumblings about the former Lions and Vikings exec playing a part on the football side emerged. Warren did not shake up the Poles-Eberflus partnership this offseason, and the former Big Ten commissioner is believed to have a good relationship with the team’s GM. It would be fascinating if the two power brokers disagreed regarding this seminal decision, but nothing on that front has surfaced during the Bears’ latest will-they/won’t-they saga associated with trading a No. 1 overall pick.
This franchise has not made a No. 1 overall draft choice since 1947, and a weekend report indicated it would take a “historic haul” for a team to pry this year’s top choice from the Bears. Chicago punted on drafting Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud or Anthony Richardson last year. Poles made Fields his offseason centerpiece. Although Poles did not draft Fields, his 2023 offseason choice will matter. With the Bears having secured the top pick once again — thanks to the Panthers’ 2-15 season — Poles has another chance.
A few teams are in need at quarterback but lack a top-three pick. The Falcons (No. 8), Broncos (No. 12) and Raiders (No. 13) are the three that do not currently have exclusive negotiating rights with a starter-caliber option (Russell Wilson‘s status notwithstanding; he remains on track to be released); the Vikings (No. 11) and Buccaneers (No. 26) do. Leading up to last year’s free agency, Poles engaged in talks with a few teams — most notably discussing a three-team deal with Houston and Carolina — before dealing the pick to the Panthers.
The Bears are weighing Fields’ trajectory and upcoming fifth-year option price against what a future with Williams — the 2022 Heisman winner who has been the clubhouse leader to go No. 1 overall for over a year — would bring. The USC product being on a rookie contract for at least three years would naturally appeal to the Bears, who could fetch at least one Day 2 pick — perhaps more, given the needs of the above-referenced teams — for Fields.
A scenario in which the Bears draft a quarterback at 1 and keep Fields also surfaced as an option recently, but this has long looked like an either/or situation. Warren’s pro-Fields comments should be expected at this juncture, but this remains a central 2024 NFL storyline to follow.
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