Around this time last year, the Chicago Bears took a pretty supportive stance on quarterback Justin Fields as team general manager Ryan Poles said that the team would have to be “blown away” in order to select another quarterback in the 2023 NFL Draft and move on from Fields. But this year, with the Bears once again holding the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Fields got no such support.
During a press conference this week, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles was not exactly committal toward Justin Fields, instead saying that the team is in “a unique situation” and “has to look at everything.”
“I know there’s going to be a lot of questions on Justin,” Poles said, via a team transcript. “There’s going to be a lot of questions on the draft process. We are in information gathering mode right now. We are going to turn every stone to make sure that we are going to make a sound decision for our organization.
“I did think Justin got better. I think he can lead this team. But at the same time, there’s a unique situation where I have to look and our staff has to look at everything, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, and that’s the same with free agency. We’re going to look at our free agents, given my personnel staff, do evaluations, and again, make the best decision we can for this organization to take the next step.”
Obviously, this is a pretty brutal message to Fields, who has been the team’s starting quarterback since they selected him in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
We’ll have to see what the Bears choose to do with Fields, but this certainly isn’t an optimistic sign for him.
