This was an impossible idea at the start of the season. With the Chicago Bears in possession of the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, there are a lot of reports coming out that the team is looking to move on from Justin Fields in order to draft Alabama QB Bryce Young.
First off, can we just thank former Bears HC Lovie Smith (and now former Texans HC) for making all of our lives that much better with his Texans 32-31 win over Indianapolis to give the Bears the #1 overall pick as now we get to watch how the Bears organization will fumble such a consequential choice.
Now, I’m not trying to sound condescending or rude to the very loyal and dedicated Bears fanbase, but even they can’t deny that their team has constantly messed up franchise altering moves that set the team back decades.
Just for example, the Bears drafting Mitchell Trubisky 3rd overall in 2017, drafting Kevin White 7th overall in 2015, not building the defense around generational talent Khalil Mack, and entrusting Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace with running the organization for most of the 2010’s decade (2015-2021) were all mistakes the Bears ownership and hierarchy have made in the last 8 years alone.
I shudder to think what an extensive list of Bears mismanagement would look like.
Nonetheless, the Bears would be making one of the biggest mistakes in the franchises’ history if they blindly trade away Justin Fields and draft Alabama’s Bryce Young without a concrete, well thought out plan. Just trading away Fields for the sake of wanting to “hit big” on the latest QB talent is not only one of the dumbest things a franchise can do, but it is also the exact thing the Bears would do with such a valuable draft pick.
I get that some Bears fans and perhaps even the team’s executives aren’t entirely thrilled with how Justin Fields has developed his passing game as, to be frank, it is easily the worst thing in the former Ohio State QB’s arsenal.
No one can doubt that Fields is one of the elite rushing and mobile quarterbacks in the league already with his impressive 160 CAR for 1,143 yards and 8 rushing touchdowns, which actually put him as the 7th leading rusher in the NFL last season.
However, when you also look at Fields passing stats, you come to see why the Bears are open to the idea of trading their 11th overall draft pick from 2020.
In 15 games this season, Fields only completed 60.4% of his passes for just 2,242 yards, 17 TDs, and 11 INTs. Plus, Fields actually ended the season with just as many 200+ yard passing games (2) as he did with <100 passing yards games (2). I mean, there aren’t many QBs in the league who can say they average 149 passing yards/game and also claim to not only be staring quarterbacks, but also franchise-changing quarterbacks.
Simply put, Justin Fields HAS to become a better passer in the next two years or else he’ll never develop as anything more than a glorified running back.
Still, that doesn’t mean the Bears should give up on Fields as he still can become a great NFL passer as we saw from his Ohio State days, nor does that mean the team should draft Bryce Young and subject him to the same mismanagement that has plagued Fields’ young career.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the Bears blunder this pick come April.
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