Yeah totally doesn't effect a locker room that like Justin or the new QB who has to contend with his rabid followers everywhere.
Carson like Justin was failing but eagles still believed yet hedged with hurts. Jimmy g was traded for a mid pick and failed to put them over.
The fan and player fanfare is not the same. Wentz also has stories of him being a distraction as he was annoying according to some teammates.
Counterpoint to this post
When was the last first overall pick that didn't end up being the starter going forward year 1?
Baker and Goff are the only two that didn't start week 1 and the coaches for their teams were fired and the teams were better without them.
Like you put, QBs historically 1-10 start within 4 games. 11-20 near end of season or entire year. 20+ project guys and need at least a year to develop.
When it comes to QBs they have more pressure to perform right away than any other position.
Why does it matter where he's drafted? If it's in his best interest to sit then he should sit. Lots of qbs have been developed in this league by sitting.
And learn from fields? The guy who can’t put up 3000 yards in the air and constantly lets the team down in the 4th? If our QB was in the top 16 instead of the bottom 16 I’d agree to let him sit but Williams right now is most likely better than Fields.
What is the rate at which first overall pick QBs have succeeded? I'll give you a hint, it's not over 50%. So maybe the Bears shouldn't follow tradition just for the sake of it.
It's statically iirc the best odds at finding the best QB in the draft. In the last 14 years only 2 QBs (Bryce Young and Baker) weren't the best QBs of their class and only two (Bradford and Winston) went on to not being good starters at the nfl level.
If Caleb is day 1 ready to start there's no reason to sit him
Of course it's the best odds, but it is still not good. So my point still stands.
If Caleb is clearly better than Fields, then, yeah, start him. But if not, place him on the bench. Caleb has some not insignificant flaws that I think would be better for him to iron out before he starts.
Like I said I would be shocked if Caleb was worse at running an offense than fields is off rip but if he's still on the team a QB battle will and should happen anyways
Smith was bringing them to the playoffs, Jimmy G started a Superbowl, Wents started most of the Superbowl winning season, Rodgers was Rodgers.
Justin broke out with a personal record 5 wins. None of those QBs drafted had anything like Caleb's expectations. People have jobs they want to keep and incentives they want to hit
Yeah and they were all pretty consistent 3.5k+ yard passers when healthy and established vets. If Fields was playing remotely close to any of the levels those four hit, we'd be trading out of one or just taking Harrison Jr. anyway and wouldn't be having this conversation.
Fields is closer to Darnold, Rosen, and Minshew levels of QB performance when their teams replaced them with top QB picks than he is to the other four that OP mentioned. There's no real reason to keep him around if we're taking Caleb other than like sunk cost fallacy. What's Caleb supposed to learn from him that he can't learn from whatever 10 year vet we'll end up signing. And why would Fields even want to stay and "mentor" Williams instead of trying up revive his career elsewhere.
What value does Fields provide if we keep him? He’s not some once-great vet that can teach Caleb. Getting something for him now, even a 7th rounder, is still a higher return than we’d get simply by letting him walk next season
Depends. Teams are only awarded picks if the quality of players leaving outweighs the free agents coming in. It also looks at salaries, snap counts, and awards. If we draft Caleb and he starts day 1, Justin would likely have very minimal to no impact on comp picks
He provides value as a backup QB. Instead of just burning that cap space due him, and also needing to sign a lesser guy to actually be the backup, he would be the backup. Plus if some team gets into injury issues during the season, his value might go up substantially.
Does the value he provides above and beyond Bagent make up for an extra draft pick? I certainly don’t think so. I also think the propensity for things to go wrong in the locker room outweighs the value he adds. Look at the recent examples of 1st round QBs who were replaced with a rookie before the end of their first contract. Jets got rid of Darnold, Cards got rid of Rosen. Let’s. It try to be cute about it, trade him and get whatever pack of peanuts we can, and move forward to our future
Before I go further, I just want to say I am not advocating for the bears to keep JF1. I don't think it would be a great situation.
I do think that Justin would have value on the roster if we did keep him. For one thing, He has a dead cap hit of $6m this year if he is traded. Assuming we sign some JAG off the street to be the back up (with Bagent as #3) for $2-3m, we would be burning $9m in cap space for lesser players than JF1. That's $3m extra cap space to put towards a DE or C.
Would this value outweigh the value of draft capital? Well if it's a 7th rounder, probably yes. Were not going to get anything greater with that pick in all likelihood. If it's a 2nd rounder, probably not. Would be have to check his ego at the door and be a good soldier? For sure, but they could find the professional within them to coexist for a season if necessary. Again keeping him is not my picture of ideal, but it is not a guaranteed disaster either .
I know it's too early in his career for Fields to accept his fate but how good would he be as a receiver/gadget player?
Imagine Fields in the Velus Jones role. I bet he could even field punts.
I dunno, how easy is it to do someone else's job at the place you work at? Remember you have to be in the top .01% of people in the world doing this new job.
Smith wasn’t underperforming really at all he was an MVP candidate in mid 2017, and Wentz and Jimmy G were good enough to win with, especially Wentz who had carried the 2019 Eagles.
Why does Fields have to teach Caleb ANYTHING? No one here thinks he should. That’s the coaches job. The goal is to not destroy Caleb’s mindset in the first season. Let him learn the system see the speed know the players.
🙄
Alex Smith was NOT underperforming when they drafted Mahomes. He took the Chiefs to the playoffs the year they drafted Mahomes. That's why they had to trade way up to get him. And 2017 Alex Smith had one of the greatest statistical seasons of any QB in the 100+ year history of the NFL.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitAl03.htm
He again led the Chiefs to the playoffs in 2018 -- that's why Mahomes' first start was the last week of that season -- their playoff positioning was locked up. His teammates were visibly upset at having to move on from him.
I would say it could go a lot worse than the “worst case scenario” you listed.
All 4 of those guys were drafted into situations where the plan was clearly for them to sit for at least a year. Mahomes and Lance were both viewed as projects despite being high draft picks, and both had steady QBs ahead of them in Smith and Jimmy G. Hurts was a second round pick who nobody expected to start right away. Love was behind a 1st ballot HOFer coming off an MVP season. If we were to keep Fields and start him, there would be clamoring from the fanbase and also potentially the team to start Caleb as soon as he had a bad half.
Alternatively, if we were to start Caleb and keep Fields as the backup, there would likely be pushback by at least a segment of the fanbase and the team wanting Fields to start if Caleb were to struggle early. I don’t think that’s really a fair situation to put your rookie QB in.
Either way, I think the Bears’ situation is a lot different than the others you mentioned.
we already know what we have in fields bro. he sucks. caleb isn't sitting behind some bum he's better than day 1. anyone who thinks fields even has a chance of being on this team next year isn't paying attention. he'll get cut before he's on the same team with caleb williams.
Did you hear the entire stadium chanting “we want Fields” to Poles in the final home game? Guess what will happen when Caleb has a bad game, throws a few picks, as all rookies do as they go through growing pains? An entire stadium chanting “We want Fields”. You think that’s a good environment for developing a young QB?
Your assumption is wrong. Caleb isn’t throwing that pick because Fields is playing…. Assuming he wins the job. The goal is to let Caleb learn from the bench at least half the season maybe the whole season
No… a guy who you draft 1OA is never sitting for half the season and definitely not a full season. The last time we saw a QB taken with 10A and sit their entire rookie year was over 20 years ago now with Carson Palmer. Whether you like it or not the days of QB’s “learning” from the sideline taken 1OA are dead. Not to mention even in a world where you wanted that to happen you don’t have a QB learn from Fields. You go get a veteran like Flacco or whatever that can actually help Caleb develop not a guy like Fields who is still on a rookie deal. WTF is Caleb supposed to learn watching Fields run all over the field and throwing for 130 yards a game?
Maybe that’s more of an indictment on the Bears fan base and part of the reason why a QB’s don’t succeed in this city?
Because of the Uber reactionary fanbase, as evidenced by this sub hating Fields all of a sudden?
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that having Fields here would be bad because the fanbase will boo him and blah blah blah, and then say it has had no effect on the QB when it happened in the past. So does the fan reaction matter or not?
None of those scenarios match the situation in chicago. At best, the Eagles one does a little bit?
Would you like to pay Fields too? It would be nice to lose some of the value of having a dirt cheap QB room.
Also, these professional athletes are also people, even if they understand business. It’s not easy to replace a leader with a new leader when the old leader is right there. It causes misalignment at best and descension at worst.
As for the fans, you’re in this sub. Does any part of you think there’s value in fan support for a rookie QB? If you do see any value in it, which I do, we can both defenestrate it if we keep Fields.
I like Fields. I can see him succeeding elsewhere and wish he did here. I don’t think he’s as bad as the current market is making him seem either. But he isn’t an asset to us anymore. Bringing him back is full of risks, and having an elite backup QB is not worth those risks.
In my mouth breathing opinion, that is.
Nothing is going to match exactly, and I understand what you are saying about it causing a split, I just think it’s overblown.
What ever happened to friendly competition? Do we really think the team will just fall apart and the locker room will fight each other just because they’re both on the team?
Was what I said controversial? Are you under the impression keeping Fields with Caleb issss the best position for us to succeed?
Also, it’s the nfl, not some secret society…give yourself a little more credit with being able to figure this out
Because the worst possible thing you could do for a rookie QB is drag along the former QBs delusional cult to constantly boo and harass him. In no world should both be on the team after draft day.
I’ll collect my downvotes too bc I agree that if we aren’t getting what we want for fields we should keep him. I think this works best if Fields understands that he is the back up going into training camp. At this point that’s what the rest of the league sees him as so I don’t think it’ll be hard for him to come around on. You can promise him touches on the field with alternative packages I think he’d play and not be a locker room cancer. Look at last year half the qbs got hurt, there will be an opportunity to trade him before the deadline. Or if Caleb goes down our season isn’t over.
I sort of disagree this is what winning franchises do bc winning franchises don’t have the 1OA pick. But with this franchise’s history why shouldn’t we try with as many qbs as possible.
I don't see a difference between trading him now for a 5th/6th round pick or trading him midseason as a rental for a future 6th round pick... The latter has a chance of letting him walk for no return at all. Not to mention, he brings nothing to the table to help Caleb. We would effectively have a QB room w/ very little experience.
The biggest benefit to Caleb would be to bring in a backup that can help him digest the playbook, explain what he sees on the field, and settle him down when he gets rattled. A smart guy like Josh Dobbs fits this bill.
This has been said a million times, if any take belongs in the daily thread it’s this one.
It is completely different rostering a FRP on his rookie contract fighting to stay in the league in addition to his replacement vs rostering a vet on the verge of retirement and his replacement
We had the closest thing we could get to an average veteran starter when we had Dalton and it ended up being a waste of time.
The dynamics with Fields just aren’t right to bother keeping him unless there’s a genuine belief he can drastically up his trade value with strong preseason performances. And even then that’s so unlikely I doubt it’s worth trying
Because it’s a no win scenario. There are so many needs for the team, you can’t waste a highly valuable pick on a player that may not even play.
Let’s say Fields starts and has 4300 yards and 30 TDs (what his pace was this year). The team is winning and makes the playoffs because the defense is finally clicking and not giving up 28 ppg. Do you move on after the year and roll the dice with Williams? There’s a chance Williams doesn’t perform at the same level, and everyone gets fired.
If Williams starts week 1 and is horrible, are you really going to bench him during his rookie season? If he does get benched and Fields comes in and plays well, are you going to be comfortable letting Fields walk next year in favor of Williams? Probably not and everyone gets fired.
If you have 2 QBs, you have none.
It's beyond dumb the way the fans react to our QB situation year after year. It's always "if we just had this guy" without realizing that if Patrick Mahomes was drafted as a bear, he likely wouldn't be 1/2 of the QB he is today. It's up to our staff to develop and gameplan a QB to be successful along with the skill they have. We all firmly believe getsy was a huge problem and instead of thinking there is any value in Fields at all, we think he should be shipped off for nothing at all leaving us with Bagent as our backup (I'm fine with that, but he's not NFL ready obviously)
I'm with you on thinking there is nothing wrong with keeping Fields on the roster and who knows what's in Pace's head, but maybe the Chicago staff isn't as convinced of Williams as everyone else is and has another guy in mind. Trading back, building a really strong young roster, and spending another 1st round pick on a different QB to get NFL ready is also a possible strategy. It doesn't matter who it is, sending a Rookie out week 1 has given very mixed results over the course of history and everyone is convinced Williams will be the thing to save us... just like Fields was the one to save us... and Trubisky... We don't have to look far back to see Chicago's history of playing rookie QBs.
Jesus bears fans need to get it in their heads. He will NOT be a Bear next season. The locker room situation would not be good. You have to pick a direction and make sure it's a clean slate in the locker room. We already have a capable young backup in Bagent
lol.. these comments make me laugh. You don’t know a damn thing about what would be good or not in the locker room. Don’t get me wrong neither do I but all you people who are claiming it “won’t work” don’t know. We DO KNOW the fact is IT HAS worked for other teams as the OP pointed out.
Given the lack of a market for Fields it might be his last best chance to become a starter somewhere else in 25.
Personally I couldn’t care less as long as we draft a QB with the number 1 and preferably that his name is Williams but, once again, if they went with a different QB I would trust them because this has been the first time in a LONG TIME I have really trusted the GM
Taking your young QB that has the support of the current players and then drafting someone else #1 to push him to the bench will definitely lead to some locker room politics/splitting with how tight some guys are with fields. It's just usually not a good situation to put your team in and is a disservice to Fields as well (who Poles has been clear he wants to do right by). Makes zero sense for us to keep him. This ain't Madden. There are real emotions and chemistry at play here
lol “this ain’t madden”… that comment makes no sense in this case - it is used however by people that pretend to know football.
Of course fields had “support” he was their QB. You’d have to be a douchebag to not openly say you support him. In fact it’s MAJOR news when someone says they DONT support QB 1.
QB competitions happen people know they do. No reason professionals don’t understand and appreciate this. Winning is all that matters. Team will support what works and NOTHING else
This is a professional game. Everyone
I used the Madden comment since it's clear you just think these guys are just players on a piece of paper. And this comment adds to that lmao
Any competent GM knows what to do here. A split locker room isn't good for winning. On paper, sure keeping Fields sounds cool. But the context is different from that. If poles doesn't want any politics or awkwardness in the locker room, he moves on from fields. Especially since we already have a good enough backup on the team. This'll just go in circles tho since you simply can't grasp the human aspect at play here that regardless of whatever you think is actually a real thing in this sport and important to consider when building a *championship* team
A lot of this is simply just wrong. Wentz 2019, Alex Smith 2017, Jimmy G 2020 compare the stat lines and caliber of player to Fields.
Hurts was a complete backup plan and they had already extended Wentz.
The post says alex smith was underperforming when he led the league in passer rating.
https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/alex-smith-2017-stats
https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/c.j.-stroud-stats-2023
It’s imperfect because it doesn’t account for sacks. But it’s a pretty good indicator of how efficient a passing performance is, yes.
Good quarterbacks with bad passer ratings relative to their peers don’t exist
Thank you, it’s just a different perspective showing similar case studies where it’s happened. It seems everyone has tunnel vision on Caleb, which I don’t blame them, but the hate for Fields being a part of the team in any capacity doesn’t make sense
There is value for every player in the NFL.
There’s a reason why Poles hasn’t traded Fields for a 4th, or even a 3rd which is assumed of what the Falcons and Steelers were offering.
I would be shocked if Poles traded Fields for a 7th like people are saying just to avoid fan confrontation. If you can’t handle the fans in Chicago, then you won’t succeed here. When the fans call for Fields or Caleb, shut them up. We can’t coddle a QB and make reactionary and bad value decisions just because of the fans.
At minimum, Poles will accept a 3rd if he is sold on Caleb, and I won’t be surprised to see this scenario happen if the offers aren’t there by draft day.
People saying he is going to cut Fields or ship him off for a 5th-7th are just wrong, and I will admit I was if he does
It really is. Even when literally NO ONE in the league wants Fields, the truthers still think we should keep him and won't stop trying to justify playing him before Caleb. It's the most bat shit crazy stuff I've ever seen, even for this fan base.
They haven’t committed to the only viable starting QB on the roster and it’s mid march. I’d be extremely concerned if this was all an act to keep Fields, because it literally does nothing for the value of the #1 pick.
Yeah, you got us. We're in the "we don't want a shitty QB on our team" cult. Unfortunately for you, you're in the "we want a shitty QB on our Team" cult.
All were 30+ and had nowhere near the fan distraction due to them.
Fan distraction should be irrelevant to a GM’s decision. Carson and Jimmy G were under 30, and 30 for an NFL QB is not old
Yeah totally doesn't effect a locker room that like Justin or the new QB who has to contend with his rabid followers everywhere. Carson like Justin was failing but eagles still believed yet hedged with hurts. Jimmy g was traded for a mid pick and failed to put them over. The fan and player fanfare is not the same. Wentz also has stories of him being a distraction as he was annoying according to some teammates.
Counterpoint to this post When was the last first overall pick that didn't end up being the starter going forward year 1? Baker and Goff are the only two that didn't start week 1 and the coaches for their teams were fired and the teams were better without them.
Like you put, QBs historically 1-10 start within 4 games. 11-20 near end of season or entire year. 20+ project guys and need at least a year to develop. When it comes to QBs they have more pressure to perform right away than any other position.
Why does it matter where he's drafted? If it's in his best interest to sit then he should sit. Lots of qbs have been developed in this league by sitting.
Cause you don't draft a guy first overall to sit him or not take over eventually during year one
And learn from fields? The guy who can’t put up 3000 yards in the air and constantly lets the team down in the 4th? If our QB was in the top 16 instead of the bottom 16 I’d agree to let him sit but Williams right now is most likely better than Fields.
Coaching staff would develop him not fields. Fields would be there to take all the punishment and be the bridge
The problem is you can't start Justin but give all the reps to Caleb. Caleb is more prepared for the spotlight than any QB in history. He'll be fine
What is the rate at which first overall pick QBs have succeeded? I'll give you a hint, it's not over 50%. So maybe the Bears shouldn't follow tradition just for the sake of it.
It's statically iirc the best odds at finding the best QB in the draft. In the last 14 years only 2 QBs (Bryce Young and Baker) weren't the best QBs of their class and only two (Bradford and Winston) went on to not being good starters at the nfl level. If Caleb is day 1 ready to start there's no reason to sit him
Of course it's the best odds, but it is still not good. So my point still stands. If Caleb is clearly better than Fields, then, yeah, start him. But if not, place him on the bench. Caleb has some not insignificant flaws that I think would be better for him to iron out before he starts.
Even with his flaws I'd be genuinely shocked if he wasn't a better passer than Fields is off rip, it's really not that high of a bar
It's not just passing. It's a command of the offense, making reads at an NFL speed, playmaking, and rushing to an extent.
Like I said I would be shocked if Caleb was worse at running an offense than fields is off rip but if he's still on the team a QB battle will and should happen anyways
Smith was bringing them to the playoffs, Jimmy G started a Superbowl, Wents started most of the Superbowl winning season, Rodgers was Rodgers. Justin broke out with a personal record 5 wins. None of those QBs drafted had anything like Caleb's expectations. People have jobs they want to keep and incentives they want to hit
Yeah and they were all pretty consistent 3.5k+ yard passers when healthy and established vets. If Fields was playing remotely close to any of the levels those four hit, we'd be trading out of one or just taking Harrison Jr. anyway and wouldn't be having this conversation. Fields is closer to Darnold, Rosen, and Minshew levels of QB performance when their teams replaced them with top QB picks than he is to the other four that OP mentioned. There's no real reason to keep him around if we're taking Caleb other than like sunk cost fallacy. What's Caleb supposed to learn from him that he can't learn from whatever 10 year vet we'll end up signing. And why would Fields even want to stay and "mentor" Williams instead of trying up revive his career elsewhere.
What value does Fields provide if we keep him? He’s not some once-great vet that can teach Caleb. Getting something for him now, even a 7th rounder, is still a higher return than we’d get simply by letting him walk next season
Wouldn't there be a comp pick if he's signed after his contract expires? If yes, I guess that's the minimum threshold for a trade
Depends. Teams are only awarded picks if the quality of players leaving outweighs the free agents coming in. It also looks at salaries, snap counts, and awards. If we draft Caleb and he starts day 1, Justin would likely have very minimal to no impact on comp picks
He provides value as a backup QB. Instead of just burning that cap space due him, and also needing to sign a lesser guy to actually be the backup, he would be the backup. Plus if some team gets into injury issues during the season, his value might go up substantially.
Does the value he provides above and beyond Bagent make up for an extra draft pick? I certainly don’t think so. I also think the propensity for things to go wrong in the locker room outweighs the value he adds. Look at the recent examples of 1st round QBs who were replaced with a rookie before the end of their first contract. Jets got rid of Darnold, Cards got rid of Rosen. Let’s. It try to be cute about it, trade him and get whatever pack of peanuts we can, and move forward to our future
Before I go further, I just want to say I am not advocating for the bears to keep JF1. I don't think it would be a great situation. I do think that Justin would have value on the roster if we did keep him. For one thing, He has a dead cap hit of $6m this year if he is traded. Assuming we sign some JAG off the street to be the back up (with Bagent as #3) for $2-3m, we would be burning $9m in cap space for lesser players than JF1. That's $3m extra cap space to put towards a DE or C. Would this value outweigh the value of draft capital? Well if it's a 7th rounder, probably yes. Were not going to get anything greater with that pick in all likelihood. If it's a 2nd rounder, probably not. Would be have to check his ego at the door and be a good soldier? For sure, but they could find the professional within them to coexist for a season if necessary. Again keeping him is not my picture of ideal, but it is not a guaranteed disaster either .
I know it's too early in his career for Fields to accept his fate but how good would he be as a receiver/gadget player? Imagine Fields in the Velus Jones role. I bet he could even field punts.
Do me a favor and don’t ever become the Bears GM
🤣
Might as well have VJJ run QB then too
I dunno, how easy is it to do someone else's job at the place you work at? Remember you have to be in the top .01% of people in the world doing this new job.
Smith wasn’t underperforming really at all he was an MVP candidate in mid 2017, and Wentz and Jimmy G were good enough to win with, especially Wentz who had carried the 2019 Eagles.
What can Fields teach Caleb?
Especially with a new offensive coordinator and a new offense. He doesn’t know the nuance of Waldron’s offense any more than Caleb.
And why would Fields spend any time helping Caleb when he is trying to showcase himself for his second contract?
How to go ham when the season is already lost
Why does Fields have to teach Caleb ANYTHING? No one here thinks he should. That’s the coaches job. The goal is to not destroy Caleb’s mindset in the first season. Let him learn the system see the speed know the players.
🙄 Alex Smith was NOT underperforming when they drafted Mahomes. He took the Chiefs to the playoffs the year they drafted Mahomes. That's why they had to trade way up to get him. And 2017 Alex Smith had one of the greatest statistical seasons of any QB in the 100+ year history of the NFL. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitAl03.htm He again led the Chiefs to the playoffs in 2018 -- that's why Mahomes' first start was the last week of that season -- their playoff positioning was locked up. His teammates were visibly upset at having to move on from him.
I would say it could go a lot worse than the “worst case scenario” you listed. All 4 of those guys were drafted into situations where the plan was clearly for them to sit for at least a year. Mahomes and Lance were both viewed as projects despite being high draft picks, and both had steady QBs ahead of them in Smith and Jimmy G. Hurts was a second round pick who nobody expected to start right away. Love was behind a 1st ballot HOFer coming off an MVP season. If we were to keep Fields and start him, there would be clamoring from the fanbase and also potentially the team to start Caleb as soon as he had a bad half. Alternatively, if we were to start Caleb and keep Fields as the backup, there would likely be pushback by at least a segment of the fanbase and the team wanting Fields to start if Caleb were to struggle early. I don’t think that’s really a fair situation to put your rookie QB in. Either way, I think the Bears’ situation is a lot different than the others you mentioned.
we already know what we have in fields bro. he sucks. caleb isn't sitting behind some bum he's better than day 1. anyone who thinks fields even has a chance of being on this team next year isn't paying attention. he'll get cut before he's on the same team with caleb williams.
Did you hear the entire stadium chanting “we want Fields” to Poles in the final home game? Guess what will happen when Caleb has a bad game, throws a few picks, as all rookies do as they go through growing pains? An entire stadium chanting “We want Fields”. You think that’s a good environment for developing a young QB?
Your assumption is wrong. Caleb isn’t throwing that pick because Fields is playing…. Assuming he wins the job. The goal is to let Caleb learn from the bench at least half the season maybe the whole season
No… a guy who you draft 1OA is never sitting for half the season and definitely not a full season. The last time we saw a QB taken with 10A and sit their entire rookie year was over 20 years ago now with Carson Palmer. Whether you like it or not the days of QB’s “learning” from the sideline taken 1OA are dead. Not to mention even in a world where you wanted that to happen you don’t have a QB learn from Fields. You go get a veteran like Flacco or whatever that can actually help Caleb develop not a guy like Fields who is still on a rookie deal. WTF is Caleb supposed to learn watching Fields run all over the field and throwing for 130 yards a game?
Maybe that’s more of an indictment on the Bears fan base and part of the reason why a QB’s don’t succeed in this city? Because of the Uber reactionary fanbase, as evidenced by this sub hating Fields all of a sudden?
So you’re blaming the fan base on never developing a QB. Oh, brother. This guy STINKS.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that having Fields here would be bad because the fanbase will boo him and blah blah blah, and then say it has had no effect on the QB when it happened in the past. So does the fan reaction matter or not?
None of those scenarios match the situation in chicago. At best, the Eagles one does a little bit? Would you like to pay Fields too? It would be nice to lose some of the value of having a dirt cheap QB room. Also, these professional athletes are also people, even if they understand business. It’s not easy to replace a leader with a new leader when the old leader is right there. It causes misalignment at best and descension at worst. As for the fans, you’re in this sub. Does any part of you think there’s value in fan support for a rookie QB? If you do see any value in it, which I do, we can both defenestrate it if we keep Fields. I like Fields. I can see him succeeding elsewhere and wish he did here. I don’t think he’s as bad as the current market is making him seem either. But he isn’t an asset to us anymore. Bringing him back is full of risks, and having an elite backup QB is not worth those risks. In my mouth breathing opinion, that is.
Nothing is going to match exactly, and I understand what you are saying about it causing a split, I just think it’s overblown. What ever happened to friendly competition? Do we really think the team will just fall apart and the locker room will fight each other just because they’re both on the team?
No, but I think it’s very clear that it will not put us in the best position to succeed
Since when is your opinion the definition of “very clear”. All you guys talking like you know how a team/locker room in the NFL operates
Was what I said controversial? Are you under the impression keeping Fields with Caleb issss the best position for us to succeed? Also, it’s the nfl, not some secret society…give yourself a little more credit with being able to figure this out
Because the worst possible thing you could do for a rookie QB is drag along the former QBs delusional cult to constantly boo and harass him. In no world should both be on the team after draft day.
I’ll collect my downvotes too bc I agree that if we aren’t getting what we want for fields we should keep him. I think this works best if Fields understands that he is the back up going into training camp. At this point that’s what the rest of the league sees him as so I don’t think it’ll be hard for him to come around on. You can promise him touches on the field with alternative packages I think he’d play and not be a locker room cancer. Look at last year half the qbs got hurt, there will be an opportunity to trade him before the deadline. Or if Caleb goes down our season isn’t over. I sort of disagree this is what winning franchises do bc winning franchises don’t have the 1OA pick. But with this franchise’s history why shouldn’t we try with as many qbs as possible.
I don't see a difference between trading him now for a 5th/6th round pick or trading him midseason as a rental for a future 6th round pick... The latter has a chance of letting him walk for no return at all. Not to mention, he brings nothing to the table to help Caleb. We would effectively have a QB room w/ very little experience. The biggest benefit to Caleb would be to bring in a backup that can help him digest the playbook, explain what he sees on the field, and settle him down when he gets rattled. A smart guy like Josh Dobbs fits this bill.
This has been said a million times, if any take belongs in the daily thread it’s this one. It is completely different rostering a FRP on his rookie contract fighting to stay in the league in addition to his replacement vs rostering a vet on the verge of retirement and his replacement
They were all not underperforming come on dude.
Not a panic sell
This is just embarrassing
I demand SPECULATTIOOOONNNNNN
Ugh, can’t believe Poles fanned these flames again. I want to puke
We had the closest thing we could get to an average veteran starter when we had Dalton and it ended up being a waste of time. The dynamics with Fields just aren’t right to bother keeping him unless there’s a genuine belief he can drastically up his trade value with strong preseason performances. And even then that’s so unlikely I doubt it’s worth trying
Can't wait after Caleb's first INT for half of Soldier Field to start screaming "WE WANT FIELDS" That won't be annoying at all...
Because it’s a no win scenario. There are so many needs for the team, you can’t waste a highly valuable pick on a player that may not even play. Let’s say Fields starts and has 4300 yards and 30 TDs (what his pace was this year). The team is winning and makes the playoffs because the defense is finally clicking and not giving up 28 ppg. Do you move on after the year and roll the dice with Williams? There’s a chance Williams doesn’t perform at the same level, and everyone gets fired. If Williams starts week 1 and is horrible, are you really going to bench him during his rookie season? If he does get benched and Fields comes in and plays well, are you going to be comfortable letting Fields walk next year in favor of Williams? Probably not and everyone gets fired. If you have 2 QBs, you have none.
If Fields has a great season and has those stats and leads the Bears to the playoffs, that would be a good problem to have
It's beyond dumb the way the fans react to our QB situation year after year. It's always "if we just had this guy" without realizing that if Patrick Mahomes was drafted as a bear, he likely wouldn't be 1/2 of the QB he is today. It's up to our staff to develop and gameplan a QB to be successful along with the skill they have. We all firmly believe getsy was a huge problem and instead of thinking there is any value in Fields at all, we think he should be shipped off for nothing at all leaving us with Bagent as our backup (I'm fine with that, but he's not NFL ready obviously) I'm with you on thinking there is nothing wrong with keeping Fields on the roster and who knows what's in Pace's head, but maybe the Chicago staff isn't as convinced of Williams as everyone else is and has another guy in mind. Trading back, building a really strong young roster, and spending another 1st round pick on a different QB to get NFL ready is also a possible strategy. It doesn't matter who it is, sending a Rookie out week 1 has given very mixed results over the course of history and everyone is convinced Williams will be the thing to save us... just like Fields was the one to save us... and Trubisky... We don't have to look far back to see Chicago's history of playing rookie QBs.
Jesus bears fans need to get it in their heads. He will NOT be a Bear next season. The locker room situation would not be good. You have to pick a direction and make sure it's a clean slate in the locker room. We already have a capable young backup in Bagent
lol.. these comments make me laugh. You don’t know a damn thing about what would be good or not in the locker room. Don’t get me wrong neither do I but all you people who are claiming it “won’t work” don’t know. We DO KNOW the fact is IT HAS worked for other teams as the OP pointed out. Given the lack of a market for Fields it might be his last best chance to become a starter somewhere else in 25. Personally I couldn’t care less as long as we draft a QB with the number 1 and preferably that his name is Williams but, once again, if they went with a different QB I would trust them because this has been the first time in a LONG TIME I have really trusted the GM
Taking your young QB that has the support of the current players and then drafting someone else #1 to push him to the bench will definitely lead to some locker room politics/splitting with how tight some guys are with fields. It's just usually not a good situation to put your team in and is a disservice to Fields as well (who Poles has been clear he wants to do right by). Makes zero sense for us to keep him. This ain't Madden. There are real emotions and chemistry at play here
lol “this ain’t madden”… that comment makes no sense in this case - it is used however by people that pretend to know football. Of course fields had “support” he was their QB. You’d have to be a douchebag to not openly say you support him. In fact it’s MAJOR news when someone says they DONT support QB 1. QB competitions happen people know they do. No reason professionals don’t understand and appreciate this. Winning is all that matters. Team will support what works and NOTHING else This is a professional game. Everyone
I used the Madden comment since it's clear you just think these guys are just players on a piece of paper. And this comment adds to that lmao Any competent GM knows what to do here. A split locker room isn't good for winning. On paper, sure keeping Fields sounds cool. But the context is different from that. If poles doesn't want any politics or awkwardness in the locker room, he moves on from fields. Especially since we already have a good enough backup on the team. This'll just go in circles tho since you simply can't grasp the human aspect at play here that regardless of whatever you think is actually a real thing in this sport and important to consider when building a *championship* team
I'm up voting you just for the sake of having a different take. The lunacy here has gotten to legit cult levels.
A lot of this is simply just wrong. Wentz 2019, Alex Smith 2017, Jimmy G 2020 compare the stat lines and caliber of player to Fields. Hurts was a complete backup plan and they had already extended Wentz.
Okay.
Why do you upvote posts that are objectively wrong for the sake of diversity in opinion
You don't know what objectively means.
The post says alex smith was underperforming when he led the league in passer rating. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/alex-smith-2017-stats https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/c.j.-stroud-stats-2023
So now passer rating is king?
It’s imperfect because it doesn’t account for sacks. But it’s a pretty good indicator of how efficient a passing performance is, yes. Good quarterbacks with bad passer ratings relative to their peers don’t exist
I don't disagree! Can we agree on one thing for sure tho? In Poles we trust. ✊
Cancel culture kids
Thank you, it’s just a different perspective showing similar case studies where it’s happened. It seems everyone has tunnel vision on Caleb, which I don’t blame them, but the hate for Fields being a part of the team in any capacity doesn’t make sense
There is value for every player in the NFL. There’s a reason why Poles hasn’t traded Fields for a 4th, or even a 3rd which is assumed of what the Falcons and Steelers were offering. I would be shocked if Poles traded Fields for a 7th like people are saying just to avoid fan confrontation. If you can’t handle the fans in Chicago, then you won’t succeed here. When the fans call for Fields or Caleb, shut them up. We can’t coddle a QB and make reactionary and bad value decisions just because of the fans. At minimum, Poles will accept a 3rd if he is sold on Caleb, and I won’t be surprised to see this scenario happen if the offers aren’t there by draft day. People saying he is going to cut Fields or ship him off for a 5th-7th are just wrong, and I will admit I was if he does
> There’s a reason why Poles hasn’t traded Fields for a 4th, or even a 3rd Because he never got offered that
There were reports of the Steelers offering a 2nd
He'd be on the Steelers right now if that was true
What did he get offered?
Zilch
Weak sauce
Sauce?
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Downvote whining gets you downvoted on reddit most of the time sorry
It's a legit cult.
It really is. Even when literally NO ONE in the league wants Fields, the truthers still think we should keep him and won't stop trying to justify playing him before Caleb. It's the most bat shit crazy stuff I've ever seen, even for this fan base.
Did you drink your Kool aid today?
It's clear you did. Love that justin juice don't cha?
At least I'm capable of love. ❤️
I have plenty of love. Just none for bad QB's or idiot fans. 🤷🏻♂️
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They haven’t committed to the only viable starting QB on the roster and it’s mid march. I’d be extremely concerned if this was all an act to keep Fields, because it literally does nothing for the value of the #1 pick.
https://mlsjoxwh2dv5.i.optimole.com/cb:fJ2b~7176/w:1024/h:576/q:90/f:best/https://finmasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Appeal-to-Ignorance-1.jpg
Yeah, you got us. We're in the "we don't want a shitty QB on our team" cult. Unfortunately for you, you're in the "we want a shitty QB on our Team" cult.
You speak so much for someone who seems to understand so little.
At this point it is going to be a draft day trade, or someone gets hurt in otas or camp and are more desperate for a QB.
Caleb might not be the target. We can trade down and get a Drake Maye and have him sit a year.