Getty Bears quarterback Justin FIelds.
All it took was a little bit of success from Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields for the hot takes about his trade value to start pouring in.
Fields has been on fire lately for the Bears, throwing for four touchdown passes in back-to-back games and lighting up the Washington Commanders in the team’s 40-20 win on Thursday Night Football in Week 5. At last, Bears fans are seeing signs of progress in him as a passer, and they are lifting spirits and building hopes about his long-term future.
If the Bears are still having doubts about him as their franchise quarterback, though, now is the best time to explore their trade possibilities, according to WGN columnist Eli Ong. He even flagged the Atlanta Falcons, New York Jets and New England Patriots as teams with quarterback questions that could be in the market for a passer like Fields.
“Quarterback play is king in today’s NFL, and Fields’ meteoric rise over the last two weeks puts the Bears in a precarious position, one where they are poised to trade, quite possibly, the first player in the history of their franchise that possesses multi-Pro Bowl-caliber talent at the quarterback position,” Ong wrote in a story published October 7.
“Chicago sports fans will surely bemoan this take, but it makes too much sense to not — at least — consider the possibilities.”
ESPN’s Chris Canty Tells Bears to ‘Sell High’ on Fields
Ong isn’t the first among the media to raise this point about Fields. On October 6’s edition of ESPN’s “Get Up,” former defensive lineman Chris Canty said that now is the time to “sell high” on Fields, saying the Bears would be wise to find a trade partner for him and shift their focus to drafting a new quarterback in 2024.
Here’s the crux of Canty’s argument:
Sell high. Go ahead and move on from Justin Fields right now. His value is not gonna get higher than what it is. You’re talking about a player who has a 25-game sample size, and they’ve won six games. Not to say that Justin Fields can’t be a good quarterback, not to say that Justin Fields can’t play winning football. What I’m saying is, based on where the Chicago Bears are in their program development, it makes more sense for them to move away from Justin Fields now rather than allow him to play out the rest of the season and potentially de-value what he could be in a trade to another team.
There is a shred of logic in what Ong and Canty are both saying about Fields’ trade value. If the Bears have resigned themselves to making a quarterback change in 2024 with a pair of potential top-5 selections in their possession, then trading Fields would be an inevitability for them. And if he struggles down the stretch of the 2023 regular season, it could diminish the eventual trade return the Bears might receive for a deal.
Of course, the Bears trading Fields would be counterproductive to winning games. The only other quarterback on their roster is undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent, and while he did show flashes in the preseason, it would be unrealistic to expect him to jump into such a complex offense and perform at the levels Fields has over the past two weeks.
Justin Fields Can Legitimize Status as Franchise QB
The mood of the Chicago Bears fanbase did a complete 180 after their disappointing 38-20 home loss to the Green Bay Packers in their season opener. Their subsequent losses to Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Denver only further soured expectations about what the rebuilding Bears could actually achieve in their once-promising 2023 campaign.
If Week 5’s win is a sign that Fields is turning a corner and the Bears are becoming who they thought they could be, trading him to another team would be absolute lunacy.
Fields looked comfortable in the pocket in the Bears’ rout of the Commanders, slinging a trio of touchdown passes to No. 1 wide receiver DJ Moore in the prime-time spotlight. The Bears’ offensive line did a better job of giving him time to throw with the return of left guard Teven Jenkins, and Fields himself seemed more decisive after admitting that he had been overthinking the scheme and reads over his first few games of 2023.
Through five games, Fields has the 13th most passing yards (1,143) in the league and is tied for the second most touchdown passes (11) with Russell Wilson, Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Allen. He also owns the 12th best passer rating (95.4) among quarterbacks, sitting just behind two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes (96) in the rankings.
The Commanders are not a world-class defense, but doubts about whether the Bears have the right man at quarterback could evaporate if he is able to string together a few more performances in the realm of what he showed against Denver and Washington.