The Chicago Bears have finally traded quarterback Justin Fields. In a move virtually everyone expected, the Bears parted ways with their first-round draft pick from 2021 in a trade with the Steelers, who see a fit with the former Ohio State Buckeye.
Pittsburgh exchanged a sixth-round pick the team got from the Philadelphia Eagles to the Bears, which could become a fourth-round pick through playing time incentives. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the two lead NFL insiders in the industry, broke the news on Saturday evening.
“The Bears are trading QB Justin Fields to the Steelers,” Rapoport said.
“Bears are trading Justin Fields for a 2025 6th-round pick that goes to a 4th-round pick based on playtime,” Schefter said.
These reports were both published on X, the popular website formerly known as Twitter.
The move signals the end of Fields’ run in Chicago. The Bears gave up an awful lot to draft him in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. That draft might be one of the more disappointing drafts in recent memory for quarterbacks, and Fields’ lackluster play contributed to that distinction. While it wasn’t all on Fields, the team had to make a move. And the urgency was only amplified more when they landed the top pick again in this year’s draft due to Carolina’s ineptitude.
So. a trade had to happen. Now that it finally has, the Bears and Fields can both go on in their own direction.
The NFL world had much to say about this move.
Steelers sent a sleeve of Ritz crackers for Justin Fields bro
— Edwardian. (@DepressedDETN) March 16, 2024
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022