5 Chicago Bears who won't be back for 2024 campaign

Justin Fields

I'll readily admit that my prediction is for the Chicago Bears to trade Justin Fields this offseason, but that it's not a straightforward decision to make by any means.

Fields was a miserably poor quarterback and not part of the solution for the Bears through the first eight weeks of the season. In the several weeks since, he has improved enough for the Bears to keep themselves in the playoff running for a few weeks and even looked like a really good quarterback in short spurts.

On the whole, though? Fields was a middle-of-the-road quarterback at best and progressed to become an average quarterback.

The Bears are in a tough spot. They have a top overall pick and another top-half of the first-round pick. They could add another young star quarterback and a game-changing receiver within 10 picks of one another, not to mention whatever they might acquire by trading Justin Fields.

Do you hope that Fields can continue progressing next year? Or do you turn the chapter and set your sights on a new signal caller?

Lightning rarely strikes twice in the NFL. The Bears will now have controlled the top overall pick in two consecutive years as they exit the regular season, and passing on the chance of scooping up a generational quarterback for a second straight year in favor of Justin Fields would be a mistake.

The answer should be simple. What are the chances Fields leads a Super Bowl-winning team throughout his career? What are the chances Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, or Jayden Daniels does? I'd take the mystery and excitement of a blank slate over the known mediocrity of Fields at this point, and so should the Bears.

Now, the Bears could bring on a new rookie QB and have them duel it out with Fields for the starting spot, but I think in that situation it makes far more sense to try to get some sort of draft capital out of Fields in a trade with a team that thinks they can reinvent him and extract his raw athleticism out into wins.