Justin Fields might just be the smartest player in the NFL

New Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields impressed head coach Matt Nagy during a phone call the night of the NFL Draft.

The Chicago Bears have a new quarterback in Justin Fields, after they traded up in the first-round with the New York Giants to select him with the 11th-overall pick. Fields’ talent was obviously worthy of a first-round selection, as evidenced during his time at Ohio State, but what really won over the Bears was his intelligence.

According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Bears loved Fields’ “intellect and recall.” After the selection on the first night of the NFL Draft, head coach Matt Nagy called Fields and brought up a formation the two had discussed during a pre-draft Zoom meeting. Nagy asked Fields what the formation was, and the quarterback repeated it back to his new head coach perfectly.

Justin Fields’ ‘intellect and recall’ won over the Chicago Bears

That is fantastic.

The Bear had the draft board work in their favor this past Thursday night. After Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Trey Lance were all taken in the first three picks of the draft, there was a run on position players. Chicago’s luck grew further after the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, who both have questions at quarterback, went cornerback with the respective picks. Once the Philadelphia Eagles traded up to select Alabama wideout DeVonta Smith ahead of the New York Giants, the Bears negotiated a deal with the NFC East team by sending them a massive amount of draft capital to move up to pick No. 11.

And just like that, Fields became Chicago’s quarterback of the future.

In his two seasons at Ohio State, Fields threw for 5,373 yards, 63 touchdowns and nine interceptions on a 68.4 completion percentage, while also rushing for 867 yards and 15 touchdowns on 218 carries.

While the Bears are moving forward with Andy Dalton as the starter for the beginning of the 2021 season, Fields may very well gain some significant playing time if the former Cincinnati Bengal and Dallas Cowboy struggles. Whenever that is, remains to be seen. Regardless, Bears fans who already loved the selection of Fields are no doubt infatuated with the signal caller after hearing about this interaction with Nagy on draft night.