With Justin Fields being shipped to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday evening, the trade compensation came in lower than many expected. He netted just a conditional 2025 sixth-round selection that can turn into a fourth-round pick if he plays 51 percent or more of the team’s snaps in 2024. Soon after the trade broke, Bears GM Ryan Poles released a statement and revealed that multiple teams had been inquiring about Fields in the week leading up to the trade.
According to ESPN’s Bears reporter Courtney Cronin, they actually received a better offer and turned it down.
“The reason that they took this trade offer from the Pittsburgh Steelers after having what I was told was an offer to send Justin to a place where there was already an established starting quarterback that would’ve actually yielded the Bears a better deal in return,” Cronin said in a clip of her appearance on SportsCenter posted on X. “It’s about doing right by Justin Fields and giving him the opportunity to go continue his career somewhere else.”
This is in line with what Adam Schefter reported on Saturday evening following the trade, that the Bears wanted to find Fields a landing spot that made sense for both him and the team. Ultimately, the Bears believe in Fields, but having the first overall pick in the draft with a projected generational talent like Caleb Williams was too much to pass up on.
The term “it’s just business” when referring to contract situations in the NFL is often thrown around, but it is important to remember that there are humans involved. By all accounts, Fields was put in a difficult situation but never wavered through the adversity or complained in any way. He was a professional and a leader within that organization. So Poles wanted to do right by him and send him somewhere he has a chance at a long-term future.
With Russell Wilson reportedly wanting to extend his contract beyond the one-year deal he is signed to, it might be difficult to work out a long-term future for him. But the quarterback jobs around the league were drying up and with Wilson turning 36 in November of the upcoming season, Fields might not have to wait long, if he chooses to stick around on a contract beyond this year, to have that opportunity.
The Steelers coveted Fields coming out of the draft in 2021, and their current director of player scouting, Mark Sadowski, was the director of college scouting with the Bears back when he was drafted. Now, we just have to wait and see what approach they take with his fifth-year option and a possible extension outside of that if it is not picked up.
