It was speculated about for weeks and weeks, but nothing came to fruition regarding a Justin Fields trade between the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Until Saturday.
Everything changed just a day prior when the Steelers traded quarterback Kenny Pickett, who was upset with the Russell Wilson signing. That opened the door for the Steelers and Bears to get a Fields trade done as Pittsburgh sent a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to Chicago for Fields, giving Pittsburgh another quarterback behind Wilson as the Bears ultimately turned down better offers.
For The Athletic’s NFL insider Dianna Russini, during an appearance on The Athletic Football Show with host Robert Mays, she was surprised the deal finally got done because there was no real market for Fields, even with reports that as many as six teams had recently checked in on the former first-round pick.
“I was surprised they got it done, actually. Because I knew the market just was not good for him,” Russini said regarding the Fields trade to Pittsburgh, according to video via The Athletic on YouTube. “And I was talking to so many different GMs around the league just trying to get an idea if they were in on it, but also if they knew of other GMs that were in on it and what they were hearing. There’s so many conversations that are happening during this week that I don’t even think fans can comprehend. And it’s not always specific to what that team’s need is, everyone is just sharing information and collecting and trying to see of how they can get, I guess, really ahead by using that intel.
“But that being said, so many different types of people I was talking to around the league just kept telling me the same thing.”
Throughout the process, things changed daily with Fields and his market.Â
In the beginning, the discussion was that the Bears had too high of an asking price, which reportedly had teams hesitant to engage in serious trade talks. Then things dragged on, and the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis came and went with Fields still a member of the Bears. Ahead of the start of free agency, Bears GM Ryan Poles even stated at the Combine he wanted to do right by Fields and move him before free agency began and quarterback jobs were snatched up.
Ultimately that didn’t happen, and it was because there wasn’t a good market for Fields as things really broke down for the No. 11 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Steelers took advantage of that depleted market, flipping a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to the Bears for Fields, landing a quarterback they’ve liked dating back to his days at Ohio State.
NFL teams as a whole might have just told everyone how they feel about Fields overall as a quarterback, but the Steelers did a very good job of taking advantage of that market. In turn, they landed a talented dual-threat quarterback who can come in, sit and learn behind Russell Wilson and potentially be ready to go in 2025 as the Steelers’ starting quarterback.
It’s a major win for the Steelers, even if it is still surprising that it ultimately got done.
