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Carmen Vitali
NFC North Reporter
The saga is over.
The Chicago Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It will range from the sixth round to the fourth.
On the day the city celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, no less.
The timing was curious for more than just that reason. The future Day 3 return isn’t a haul befitting of a starter. It’s a reflection of the current market, where most of the starting and backup roles have already been accounted for in the first wave of free agency. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the Bears to hang onto Fields until draft night and see if a team gets desperate for a quarterback? Especially if they were content with taking compensation in future years?
But general manager Ryan Poles said he wanted to do right by Fields if he were to trade him earlier this month in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine. The trade happening on March 16 is Poles fulfilling that promise.
Poles didn’t want to drag this process out longer than it had already gone on. He didn’t want Fields to be on the roster when Chicago drafted its new signal caller. Poles also sent Fields to a good situation. Fields will have the opportunity to learn and grow in a stable organization that seems to be leaving the door open for the 25-year-old to become part of its future. The Steelers have Russell Wilson on a veteran minimum, one-year deal as their starter, after all.
The Bears may have forfeited some assets, but Poles did right by Fields.
Fields was owed that much after organizational dysfunction threw off the start of his career.
Chicago can now concentrate on using the first overall pick in this year’s draft to get its quarterback of the future. It’s a unique situation given the Bears don’t have a roster that warranted the first overall pick. The way the Bears are currently set up on paper looks like a great landing spot to develop a young quarterback, maybe…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/bears-did-right-by-justin-fields-in-trading-him-to-steelers
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Publish date : 2024-03-17 00:35:44
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