The Chicago Bears don’t yet have a plan for Justin Fields
There’s a well-known advertisement for Indiana Beach amusement park that there’s more than corn in Indiana. However, the state does much better when it sticks to corn. One of the great misconceptions about the Hoosier state is that they produce corn for the table.
That’s not true. Most of the corn grown in the state is feed for animals and maybe gasoline. For Chicago Bears fans looking for insight on GM Ryan Poles’s plans with Justin Fields at quarterback via the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, the only kernels of truth mined were mostly pig feed.
There's more than corn in Indiana. Nebraska, not so much.
LET'S GO!!! #IUFB pic.twitter.com/XecdML6pBP
— Homegrown Hoosier (@HomegrownHoos) October 26, 2019
Caleb Williams, the Bears’ likely No. 1 pick, transcended the combine. He was the spectacle, but he wasn’t the object of the combine. He didn’t participate in the drills, but he came into the media pit and asked questions to the other objects of the combine.
Whether Williams is a great man or a man of his time remains to be seen. He’s already a force in the NFL.
Williams has no desire for fame. Unlike his hero, Aaron Rodgers, Williams doesn’t seek publicity often but wants immortality.
Chatterbox: The Steelers aren’t super interested in Justin Fields
It’s a well-discussed subject that Justin Fields’ trade value tanked during the legal tampering period of the NFL Combine. With Kirk Cousins expected to leave the Minnesota Vikings and now Russell Wilson hitting the open market, the supply of quarterbacks is a lot higher than the Bears thought there would be at the end of the regular season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were suggested as a potential destination for Fields. Steelers general manager Omar Khan said he’d explore every option to add competition at quarterback this offseason and that new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith would be involved in the decision.
However, the chatter I heard from Steelers’ insiders is that Khan doesn’t have much interest in trading for Fields, especially not for a Day 1 or early Day 2 pick. The Steelers’ brass wants to give Kenny Pickett another shot. They also really like Mason Rudolph after the way he led the Steelers at the end of the season. Ryan Tannehill is also another safe option for Smith and the Steelers.
While Fields has potential, the main drawback to the Steelers is Fields’ cost. If the Steelers traded a high-value pick for Fields, the team would, at the minimum, have to pick up his fifth-year option. They could give Fields a contract similar to what the Green Bay Packers gave Jordan Love last offseason.
Regardless, Fields being traded in the final year of his rookie deal is a significant hold-up right now.
Draft plans: The Commanders and Titans could trade down
There has been speculation the Chicago Bears could trade the No. 1 pick to the Washington Commanders, who sit at No. 2, and then potentially trade down again if Poles wants to keep Fields or if they want to draft a quarterback not named Caleb Williams.
The feedback I received about the Commanders is that their team is in no shape to give up draft capital to trade up. The team has too many holes on the roster to move up for Williams. If anything, the Commanders, who already have a decent starter in Sam Howell, will trade down. They could look to swap with the New England Patriots at No. 3 or trade even further back.
The Tennessee Titans, who own the No. 7 pick, are of interest to Bears fans who want a wide receiver or Joe Alt. The Titans need an offensive tackle or wide receiver this offseason. But they also could use more draft capital in Brian Callahan’s first season as head coach of the team. Per reports, the Las Vegas Raiders want a quarterback and could be looking to trade with the Titans for the seventh overall pick.
The more quarterbacks taken in the top eight, the more options the Bears have with the No. 9 pick. Should the Titans trade to the Raiders, the Bears should have one of these players available at No. 9: Rome Odunze, Brock Bowers, Joe Alt, or Dallas Turner.
NFL Combine: Jacka– of the week
A certain content director for a fantasy football site (whom I will not give the publicity to) inserted himself into Caleb William’s story to ask why Williams did not participate in the medical exam part of the combine. The question about the medical exam was fine. It was on my list of questions to ask as well. However, the tone was terrible.
The fantasy dude basically screamed at Williams and asked the star D1 athlete if he was afraid to compete. This gave a lousy wrap to those of us who aren’t locally credentialed reporters. The NFL expanded its coverage to many publications for the event.
The combine is predominantly a marketing ploy by the league to prop up the sport during an otherwise down period in the schedule. The medical part of the NFL Combine is the only part of the event front offices care about. The workouts on the field are a circus sideshow, and the NFL focuses on promoting the incoming athletes in a sort of red carpet event that introduces the new characters of the league’s upcoming season.
To put in perspective how the league emphasizes the workout activities versus the press conferences, reporters could get within inches of Williams’ podium to shove cameras in his face. Reporters could “live report” from Lucas Oil Stadium but weren’t allowed to film the event to publish.
Live video from where journalists could sit in the stadium would not be practical. We were seated in section 136, which is too far away to report anything of value—a literal bird’ s-eye view, if you will. I didn’t bring my binoculars.
Regardless, the fantasy dude killed the vibe for some of us reporters after he asked the question to Williams. The NFL doesn’t allow reporters to photograph and publish their credentials, so the unwritten rule is that you show the press pass when you go in and out of an area at the convention center. But once you’re past the gate, the courtesy is to flip the badge around, lest an ever-roaming camera catches the badge.
Following the fantasy dude’s question, I made a habit of continually checking to see that my badge hadn’t turned around when I was roaming from podium to podcast. Many of the local beat reporters were vocal about their frustrations about the league letting in amateur publications, and I didn’t want to explain my badge to seasoned reporters. I felt more like a cast iron pan in need of a coat of PAM and a bake in the oven.
Caleb Williams handled the question beautifully
Caleb Williams did well handling the question about his medical exam (which he probably prepared to be asked) and not taking offense to the question about his competitive nature from the fantasy dude. As stoically as he could possibly be, Williams said it was a family decision.
And it’s in the great medical exam debate that we get the first glimpse of the conundrum of it being Williams and the force history or the man of his time being played out in the NFL. It’s Williams’ audacity, belief in himself, and tape of his play that caused him to flaunt the one spell the league has about the NFL combine.
It’s necessary specifically for the medical exam portion.
More and more NFL coaches are opting out of the event. Mike McCarthy, Kyle Shanahan, and Matt LaFleur were some of the names who skipped the event last week. They can see all the tape they want of the player at the combine or from college.
The ten-minute meeting they get with a prospect isn’t much. Besides, teams will get 30 pre-draft visits. However, all 32 teams use the NFL Combine to receive medical information on next year’s rookies before the start of free agency.
Williams has already accomplished one of the feats he wanted at the NFL level. He created history by calling out the NFL and the Bears bluff by postponing his medical exam until after USC’s pro day. Williams said he only plans to give out his medical information to teams who have a chance to draft him.
This could be a trend in the future.
Other athletes feel they must comply at the NFL Combine
But not every athlete is prepared for the moment.
They all handle the new spotlight differently. Some, like Brock Bowers, don’t like speaking in crowds and in front of cameras. But that’s part of life in the NFL. Others, like Drake Maye, can’t wait to get on stage. Maye bounded up the stage so fast it looked like he tripped, and I blinked in fear, thinking the league’s second-best quarterback prospect just lost millions of dollars by flinging himself into the podium.
No worries, though. Maye didn’t break a sweat after his entrance, and a league representative had to pull him off the stage because he didn’t want to stop talking to the press.
Maye and Williams have been coached for this moment. Not all athletes are ready. You see the true nature of how the week affects the players in those who aren’t quarterbacks going in the first round. This is their first big NFL event, and it dwarfs the type of stuff they see in a Power 5 conference.
Imagine being 21-22 years old, coming from predominantly warm climates like USC or the SEC, and being shipped off to the frozen Midwest in February to arrive like frozen beef for a steakhouse to meet up with 320 other replicants (as DeSean Jackson said this fall, the league values young bodies over experience) for a whirlwind job interview. The players are given grey NOBULL gear to wear around the combine in a mix of Squid Game meets Enders Game.
With no paycheck in sight, you’re poked and prodded like a steer by any team that wishes for a medical exam at the combine. (I waited two extra hours for potential Bears center prospect Zach Frazier’s presser on Saturday because he had an MRI and X-ray done on two different areas, and he had to give the information to all teams inquiring. Frazier suffered a fractured fibula last season.)
WVU C Zach Frazier’s explanation for being two+ hours late to his interview session at the NFL Combine: “So, I got an X-ray and a MRI on two different areas, and then one team wanted to see the other. So, like, I don't know, if one team ask for it, you gotta go get it.”
— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) March 2, 2024
The entire world knows everything from your hand size (I don’t even know my hand size) to how high you jump and what your upbringing was like in creepy-only-a-therapist-should-know detail.
Once you’re done with the medical portion, you’re hoarded into Hall J, which looks like a concrete gymnasium but with extra lumens being pumped in from industrial light bulbs to keep the various media stages and podiums extra bright. There isn’t a shadow allowed at the combine.
Once you get to the curtain behind the podium, a middle-aged stocky male with no facial expression, wearing jeans and a collared shirt with buttons (usually of plaid design), leads you to your podium.
In front of you stands an assembly of 15-50 reporters, most of whom can be described as male. They stand a few feet beneath the podium with red eyes, raspy voices, and the smell of the previous night/early-morning whisky protruding through pores (which mixes harshly in contrast to Hall J’s ambiance of Purell).
The reporters, armed with dictation devices and phone cameras, hurl any question, asking what teams you’ve met with (which is oddly more difficult for players to remember than not) to ‘what animal would you want to be if you could be one’; the latter hoping to go viral on a Chinese app.
In contrast, for the professionals at the combine, the week is one big harvest party that comes two weeks after the biggest spectacle in the sport ends the season.
Outside the Indiana Convention Center, the smell of the Maillard reaction and semi-rendered beef fat envelopes the senses as coaches and journalists descend upon local steakhouses. When I got to one nearby Mexican restaurant at around 7:30 pm on Thursday, while the on-field workouts were still in full swing, a notable NFC West coach was already a few tequila shots deep into his liquid and tortilla chip dinner.
(The tortilla chip dinner was for the best, as the Anglo-Saxon version of Mexican food served in downtown Indianapolis was no match for what he could find at home nearer the border. Imagine, if you would, a Mexican-food-like dish absolutely devoid of any spice that would offend the Midwest tongue and thus hit the palate like lukewarm wet dog food—this is what I was served. That’s nothing to say of the abomination of serving a margarita without fresh lime juice…)
But mostly journalists, scouts, and coaches hit up the city’s almost endless row of steakhouses. The steakhouses I checked out were tasty but didn’t feature meat served from older bovines.
One little-known secret about beef is that it becomes more tasty with age. Older bovines are known for having more flavorful meat. But the flavor comes at the opportunity cost of increases in elastin and collagen rings, making the texture less tender.
Most Americans prefer the texture of their steak from tender young cows. Since most Americans could care less about flavor, beef farmers in the US don’t allow their cows to mature for years, as every rotation around the sun costs a cow farmer extra cash.
Indianapolis is all about the youth.
Other notable observations from the NFL Combine
There was speculation early during the NFL Combine, but I don’t see the Chicago Bears taking Jayden Daniels. General manager Ryan Poles getting to know a quarterback personally would be essential to his staff’s scouting process this spring. Daniels said his meeting with the Bears at the combine was all about football and had nothing to do with getting to know him personally.
No one looked happier last week than Commanders general manager Adam Peters. He had an infectious smile. He should be grinning as the Commanders head into the Poles’ Position this offseason. Like the Bears last offseason, the Commanders own the top pick that has a chance to be traded.
Peters went on a cutting spree last week, releasing former Bears offensive tackle Charles Leno, tight end Logan Thomas, and center Nick Gates. Cutting those three players will allow the Commanders to head into free agency with the most cap space ($91.5 million) in the league.
Not bad for a rebuild.
For all the bad rap Broncos head coach Sean Payton can get from the media and his coaching peers, he’s a great ambassador for the league. As mentioned above, many coaches skip the combine altogether. Payton started his press conference a few minutes earlier than the scheduled time and was told by one of the NFL people working the event that his time was up.
One journalist accidentally interrupted Payton when they thought the head coach was done answering the previous question. Payton sternly said he wasn’t done with his answer. I guess when Payton appears gruff, it’s more because he’s focusing intently on what he’s trying to say.
Toward the end of his time at the podium, Payton said he was okay with taking a few more questions, and he took several more. Coaches have little to gain and plenty to lose in interviews.
Kudos to Payton.
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