The Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for nearly the same price the Miami Dolphins sent general manager Ryan Poles for Chase Claypool months earlier. Reports surfaced Saturday evening, and the Bears are finally trading Fields.
The Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields
Ian Rapoport, with the NFL Network, broke the story of the field trade.
🚨 🚨 🚨
The #Bears are trading QB Justin Fields to the #Steelers, sources say. A new QB into the competition. pic.twitter.com/hGQpbVwoRA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 16, 2024
The Bears will receive a Day 3 pick for Fields
However, Adam Schefter with ESPN broke the compensation story. It’s not pretty for Chicago.
The Bears are receiving a 2025 sixth-round pick that can turn into a fourth-round pick based on how much Fields plays next season. Per multiple reports, the Fields will ride the bench behind the Steelers starter, Russell Wilson, to begin the season.
Bears are trading Justin Fields for a 2025 6th-round pick that goes to a 4th-round pick based on playtime, per sources. pic.twitter.com/E7JY7K60Wn
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2024
Fields value tanked in the offseason
Most analysts thought the Bears could fetch as much as a late-first-round pick for Fields in January. By the NFL Combine, those numbers had dropped to a Day 2 pick (or what the Bears gave the Steelers for Claypool). Now, the Bears are guaranteed a Day 3 pick for a player they gave up an extra first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The compensation is close to what the Bears received for Claypool. The Bears sent the Dolphins Claypool and a 2025 seventh-round pick for a 2025 sixth-round pick.
It’s confusing why Poles decided to part with Fields for a late Day 3 pick on Saturday. He reportedly didn’t pull the trigger earlier in the week while trying to get a higher price for the Bears. But the waiting period allowed other quarterback-needy teams to fill spots in free agency this week until the Bears had little leverage left.
In retrospect, the league must have called Poles’ bluff that he wouldn’t take a rookie quarterback and Fields into training camp this fall. And it crushed the Bears in trade negotiations this month. Fields won’t even fetch what Chase Young did as a three-and-a-half-month loaner for the 49ers this fall when they traded a third-round pick to the Washington Commanders.
If there is one lesson the Bears should learn here, it’s this: They didn’t build around Fields correctly in his first three seasons. And now, they can’t use the draft capital they’ll receive for Fields to help build around their next quarterback.
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