‘The League’ confirms Ryan Poles’ call on Justin Fields

When Bears general manager Ryan Poles wished Justin Fields well, you know he meant it. He’s not worried about the repercussions if the Steelers or any other team unlocks the superstar potential in Fields.

“We’re going to make the best decision that we can for the Chicago Bears. It will not be based on fear of what could happen with this and what could happen with that,” Poles said at the NFL scouting combine last month.

As the successor to the GM who took Mitchell Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson and paid the price for that egregious evaluation error, Poles is well aware of what could happen if he makes the wrong choice between Fields and Caleb Williams or any of the heralded quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft.

But, ultimately, this wasn’t a difficult decision. Poles made the call to trade Fields and take a quarterback — presumably Williams — with the No. 1 overall pick. But “the league” confirmed it, with Fields netting just a conditional sixth-round draft pick from the Steelers.

Think about that. The NFL is fixated on dynamic quarterbacks. More than half the teams in the league are searching for a franchise guy, some desperately. It doesn’t take much to get NFL personnel departments excited about a quarterback who shows big-play potential. Difference-making athleticism can’t be taught, but flaws can be fixed.

Fields fit the profile of a young quarterback with massive potential that a desperate team mired in the muck of NFL mediocrity could fall in love with. He made 14 plays of 50 or more yards in three seasons — four of them rushes of 67, 64, 60 and 55 yards. And he played for the Bears, a team with chronic problems developing a quarterback and coordinating an offense. It’s like a built-in excuse.

Early in the offseason, it seemed like Fields would be a starter somewhere in the NFL in 2024. In January, ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr. thought the Bears could get the No. 8 overall pick from Atlanta for Fields. In February, it was conventional NFL wisdom that Fields would net a second-round draft pick.

As it turned out — likely to Poles’ surprise — there was nothing even close to a bidding war for Fields. It’s a bit of a surprising rebuke for such a talented player. Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, fired by the Bears on Jan. 10, was hired by the Raiders as offensive coordinator less than a month later — after also interviewing with the Patriots and Saints. The Patriots were interested in Luke Getsy but not Justin Fields? Wow.

The league didn’t seem to think the Bears’ offense, the offensive coordinator or the supporting cast was the problem. Wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who conspicuously disappeared in Getsy’s offense, signed a three-year, $39 million contract ($26 million guaranteed) with the Falcons on Tuesday.

Mooney had 31 receptions for 414 yards and one touchdown in a dreary 2023 season. Yet he got the same deal the Jaguars gave to Gabe Davis, who had 45 receptions for 746 yards and seven touchdowns with the Bills in 2023.

With former Bears GM Ryan Pace as their director of player personnel, the Falcons were a popular potential landing spot for Fields, who was drafted by Pace in 2021. Yet the Falcons passed on Fields and signed Mooney, also a Pace draft pick with the Bears.

Let the record show that “the league” isn’t always right. This is a league where the greatest player of all time is a sixth-round draft pick. But the NFL has had three years to watch Fields as a starter and saw Gardner Minshew and Sam Darnold as better options.

Fields wasn’t even the most valuable back-up quarterback. The Steelers got a third-round pick and two 2025 seventh-round picks from the Eagles for Kenny Pickett and a fourth-round pick.

There’s still plenty of hope for Justin Fields. In a league that is all about being at the right place at the right time — even for hot prospects like Caleb Williams, by the way — Fields has a higher ceiling than most if the stars align.

But that’s still a roll-of-the-dice proposition. And not the kind of risk Poles needed to take. Caleb Williams is a completely different kind of risk — the kind any NFL general manager has to take.