Whatever happened with Fields, Bears would regret it
Curiously, the sympathy for noted wallflower and orphan quarterback Justin Fields grew daily as the human highlight film awaited his fate, not all that bad really. Fields will still make more money than he should, and he will play football in Pittsburgh, traded there Saturday night.
None of it was up to Fields, of course, poor soul. The Bears and Pittsburgh figured it all out for him and like many overhyped cures before him, Fields will find that reality is not that bad.
Life after the Bears can be just fine, as we have seen recently with David Montgomery and Roquan Smith, and forever with Robbie Gould, while wasn’t that discarded coach Matt Nagy dancing in the Super Bowl confetti with the Kansas City Chiefs?
We can disregard the uneventful travels of Mitch Trubisky and ignore completely the farce of Mike Ditka coaching in New Orleans, but the point here is that Fields is too young and too unique to let whatever happens discourage or define him.
Fields is rather like the best athlete in a choose-em-up sandlot game who must stand stunned while guys named Pee Wee and Tubby are picked ahead of him. Oh, OK, Justin, you can play, but you bring the snacks.
What was all this flurry of bodies bouncing like pachinko balls from time zone to time zone, where a Kirk Cousins can end up with a $180 million contract in Atlanta and assorted ciphers like Gardner Minshew and Jacoby Brissett and Marcus Mariota can find new love, once franchise saver Mac Jones moving on from New England and even Russell Wilson, the Justin Fields of his day, being kissed off as a has-been to Las Vegas?
While the job market declined, Fields, the quarterback with the most upside (an industry term), the youth and the talent who, it can be agreed, had the misfortune of befuddling the Bears coaches with his uncoachability, was left in the lap of the Bears, who would rather be rid of him.
Why did the quarterback dominoes fall while Fields was disregarded? The price too high? The Bears too clever? The Bears too stupid? Acumen or inertia? As it is the Bears, I’ll take the second.
Just as they overestimated Fields when they played draft roulette to get him then, the Bears clearly overestimated his worth to teams in need of a quarterback now who are giggling behind one hand and pointing at another quarterback with the other.
The Bears have traded Fields. They could not keep him, not now after shrugging him off, while pretending to want the best for him. Too late to lie, which is the usual way options are kept open. You are our guy, Justin, ignore the rumors, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
The Bears could not use the No. 1 pick in the draft for a quarterback — likely the untarnished Caleb Williams of USC — and leave him on the bench to learn behind Fields, unless they wanted to teach indecision, inaccuracy and impulse.
And Fields could not be expected to cheerfully step aside and await the inevitable failure or injury to give him the same job he has had for three years. Nor should the Bears or any other team expect him to.
This is not a mentor-mentee situation as was Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre or Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith, or even, let’s not forget, Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe, this is a new car and a used one, low mileage but wrong model.
Even as the guy who pointed out on draft day that Fields was never going to be the franchise saver that the Bears thought and as one who consistently reminded that the Bears ought to get something for Fields while he was still worth something, I can see Fields succeeding elsewhere.
In fact, I can imagine Fields coming back to haunt the Bears at some point, winning the big game, if ever the Bears should find themselves in one again, Fields being modest and forgiving, the Bears hiding their regret,
The Bears are very familiar with that. Regret, I mean.