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San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle saying the Chicago Bears should build around quarterback Justin Fields has some irony to it.
Heavy’s Max Dible pointed that out amid the 49ers’ quarterback carousel of recent years and the Bears’ trade speculation surrounding fields. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy, the last pick in 2022, will start in the Super Bowl less than a year after the team traded away a former No. 3 pick in Trey Lance. Now, the Bears may trade Fields and draft USC star quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick.
“Kittle’s suggestion that the Bears should keep Fields is interesting on several levels,” Dible wrote. “However, it is perhaps most interesting because the 49ers sacrificed three first-round picks to move up nine spots from No. 12 to No. 3 in the first round back in 2021 to select quarterback Trey Lance. Fields was also on the Niners’ radar that year, though he ended up going No. 11 to Chicago.”
“Lance played in just eight games for San Francisco across two seasons before the team dealt him to the Dallas Cowboys last August for a fourth-round pick,” Dible continued. “A serious ankle injury early in 2022 did Lance in, but it was Brock Purdy who sealed his predecessor’s fate.”
What George Kittle Said About Justin Fields Trade Rumors
George Kittle advocates for Justin Fields
Kittle, a lifelong Bears fan, took the questions about the Bears trade speculation at the Super Bowl Opening on Monday.
“I think what the Bears should do is, personally, I think they should trade back and get as many picks as they can and build around a guy that they’ve been trying to build around,” Kittle, told the media. “Give the guy some actual options, I mean, he has options, but just help him out as much as you possibly can to build him up as big as you can, and trust the kid.”
Lance, who played with Kittle for two seasons, couldn’t earn that level of trust in San Francisco. Purdy looked poised to be the starter in 2023, even before his elbow injury recovery, and only head coach Kyle Shanahan‘s pursuit of Tom Brady stood in the way of that.
San Francisco played Lance a little in the preseason and traded him to the Cowboys before the regular season. The Niners even bumped Lance down to third on the depth chart with the free agent acquisition of Sam Darnold, now Purdy’s backup.
How Fields would have fared in San Francisco the past three years won’t be known, but his numbers in three years with the Bears haven’t impressed. He completed 60.3% of his passes for 6,674 yards and 40 touchdowns versus 30 interceptions in that span.
49ers and Bears Making ‘Mirror Opposite’ QB Moves
As Dible pointed out, the Bears could do the “mirror opposite” of what the 49ers did with Purdy and Lance.
“Purdy was literally the last player picked in the 2022 draft, and will play on the game’s biggest stage Sunday,” Dible wrote. “If the Bears select Williams at No. 1 in April, they will try to win with Purdy’s mirror opposite [the first overall pick in the draft compared to the last].”
Ironically, cycling through high-level quarterbacks in the draft doesn’t work all the time for quarterback-hungry franchises — albeit not as rare as Mr. Irrelevant panning out. For now, the 49ers struck gold while the Bears could be stuck on the NFL’s Trojan Horse quarterback prospect circuit.
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George Kittle Ironically Sounds Off on NFC Quarterback Trade Rumor