The Chicago Bears entered into the offseason with plenty of questions and gaps to fill after a disappointing 7-10 season. GM Ryan Poles had the #1 & #9 overall picks and plenty of cap space to play with. He also had to make a decision regarding his beleaguered head coach and his coaching staff. That decision came rather quickly as Poles decided the “culture was good” under Matt Eberflus. This decision was made despite DC Alan Williams and RB Coach David Walker being relieved of their duties due to behavior in the workplace.
Eberflus was retained while the offensive coaching staff was sent packing. The Bears didn’t waste much time filling the coaching vacancies by hiring Shane Waldron to be the OC and Eric Washington to be the DC. Interestingly enough, Eberflus will continue to be the defensive play caller.
With the coaching staff shored up, Poles turned his attention to the players with the following moves:
Bears release OL Cody Whitehair 
Bears release DB Eddie Jackson 
Bears re-sign CB Jaylon Johnson to 4-yr, $76 million deal 
Bears acquire OL Ryan Bates in trade with Bills for 5th round draft pick 
Bears sign DB Kevin Byard to 2-yr, $15 million deal 
Bears sign Simone Biles’ husband Jonathan Owens to 1-yr, $1.3 million deal 
Bears sign OL Matt Pryor to 1 year deal 
Bears sign TE Gerald Everett to 2-yr, $12 million deal 
Bears sign RB D’Andre Swift to 3-yr, $24.5 million deal 
Bears acquire WR Keenan Allen in trade that sends 4th round pick to the Chargers 
Bears sign DE Jake Martin to 1 year deal 
Bears sign OL Coleman Shelton to 1 year deal.
With all of these moves the 800 lb. elephant in the room remained – what would the Bears do with QB Justin Fields and the #1 overall pick. Most experts had the Bears keeping the #1 pick and drafting USC QB Caleb Williams. Ryan Poles while trying to keep his plans close to the vest did state that he “would need a haul” similar to what the Bears got last year for the #1 overall pick. With the signing of Keenan Allen it seemed as though the need for a WR opposite DJ Moore wasn’t as big of a need anymore. And as teams began signing QBs left and right, it became clear the Bears were left with really two options – Keep Fields & trade the #1 pick or trade Fields and use or trade down from the #9 pick.
That decision became clear yesterday evening as the Bears dealt QB Justin Fields to the Steelers for a 2025 6th round pick. That 6th round pick could become a 4th round pick if Justin Fields plays 51% of the Steelers snaps next season. That seems unlikely as the Steelers signed QB Russell Wilson to be their starter 2 days before getting Fields.
Fields going to the Steelers for a 6th round pick basically means the Bears gave away Fields for literally nothing. I believe Ryan Poles badly overplayed his hand regarding the QB situation. Despite Fields not showing enough progress to convince the Bears to keep him, the Bears did Fields zero favors either:
- Fields’ rookie year was spent sitting the 1st 7 games behind Andy Dalton & Nick Foles and under a lame duck head coach in Matt Nagy who wasn’t interested in developing him.
- Fields’ 2nd year was spent with the Bears completely gutting the team and giving Fields a defensive minded head coach and a first time offensive coordinator.
- Fields’ 3rd year was mired with the OC not molding the playbook to Fields’ talents and the team subtly throwing shade about Fields to the media
It was never a secret that Ryan Poles wanted to bring in his own QB despite the things he has publicly to the press. Poles has always wanted to do a complete tear down of the work his predecessor Ryan Pace did and that included moving on from Justin Fields. You can’t say you’re looking to see what this QB can do while at the same stripping the team bare and then asking that QB to play above that. This is a Bears organization that has not developed a QB in my lifetime. This is an organization that has not executed a proper build of a football team since their last Super Bowl appearance 17 years ago. This is the organization that expects to do it with Caleb Williams even though the head coach who was a part of Justin Fields’ ‘lack of progression’ is still the head coach.
Current & former Bears players took to Twitter for their reactions to the Fields trade:
There are still question marks about the team as we head into the draft. Yes, they’ve acquired Keenan Allen but that WR room still looks mighty thin. At this point Tyler Scott is your #3 WR. The offensive line is also a question mark despite getting Ryan Bates, Matt Pryor and Coleman Shelton. They will be serviceable OL but with a rookie QB at the helm is serviceable going to be good enough? Who is going to be the person on the defensive line to make an impact that will help out Montez Sweat? Teams started double-teaming and chipping him toward the end of last season and more of the same will happen this year if it’s not addressed. And even though Poles has stated he wanted to build through the draft, he’ll only have four draft picks this year:
- Round 1, Pick 1 (from Panthers)
- Round 1, Pick 9
- Round 3, Pick 75
- Round 4, Pick 122 (from Eagles)
Despite some questionable decisions Ryan Poles has done some good things in his tenure as GM. By sending Fields to Pittsburgh he has reset the QB clock both in terms of development and finances. He still has money to spend on free agents and he can move down from the #9 pick to get more draft picks. I still question his decision to keep Matt Eberflus but getting Shane Waldron to be the OC means the offense has a chance to be an above average NFL offense.
This Bears offseason has been a winding road of twists and turns and we still have the draft to go. I haven’t even discussed the Bears’ unending saga with the new stadium. What Ryan Poles has done is put enough talent on the field where the expectation heading into 2024 is win now. The clock is now ticking for Ryan Poles. Here’s hoping that the Bears can finally get it right.
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