The Chicago Bears have always been one of the first teams to sign their rookie class. There have been a few exceptions — Roquan Smith’s somewhat holdout for example. This year is starting to look no different as the Chicago Bears have signed all but one draft pick. Somewhat surprisingly, that one draft pick is Teven Jenkins. That’s right, Justin Fields signed his rookie deal yesterday and it was a fully-guaranteed, four-year deal worth $18.8 million.
The deal includes an $11 million dollar signing bonus and of course the team will have the ability to execute the fifth-year option. This makes Justin Fields the first of all of the first-round quarterbacks to sign his deal. No, he was not the last quarterback to be selected in the first round, therefore it goes beyond just being the first domino to fall in place.
Some were concerned that this might drag out, but the Chicago Bears once again were able to lock in a draft pick early. I would not be surprised if Teven Jenkins follows shortly after. In fact, maybe it happens today. Spotrac projects the Jenkins contract to be worth $8.4 million for four years.
Justin Fields continues to add firsts to his resume, signs with the Chicago Bears
Justin Fields signed his rookie deal before Mac Jones, Zach Wilson, Trevor Lawrence and Trey Lance. Hopefully, this is a sign to come that Fields also is able to be the first of these quarterbacks to hit important milestones. Milestones like the first to a Super Bowl, first to earn an NFL MVP Award, first to hit 4,000 yards in a season, and the list goes on.
In fact, this is not the first of Justin Fields’ firsts when it comes to this rookie quarterback class. Justin Fields and Ohio St. outperformed top draft pick, Trevor Lawrence, in last year’s college playoffs. Unfortunately, Fields was not able to overcome the Alabama Crimson Tide (Mac Jones). The playoff game was not the first time Fields beat Lawrence though.
In high school, Justin Fields beat Trevor Lawrence in the Elite 11 quarterback competition. This allowed Fields to be called the best signal-caller coming out of high school that year. Justin Fields recalls the situation:
"“Going into that tournament, everybody was predicting Trevor to come out the MVP,” Fields said. “They called me the silent assassin because I’m kind of an introvert. I really wasn’t there to make friends. I was there to win the tournament. And that’s what I did.”"
Justin Fields also scored the highest performance on a mental aptitude test. The test scores things such as how many reps does it take to understand something and how quickly can you recall information? Fields outperformed the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen by quite a bit too.
"The guy who supposedly can't go through his reads.. Doesn't have great work ethic, all this bogus stuff..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 6, 2021
He scored the highest.. Ever"@Mark_Sanchez tells us about Justin Fields & his performance on an aptitude test out of 6,500 professional athletes #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/gNynRbmNCE
As you can see, Justin Fields continues to prove himself on the big stage. He did it in high school, he did it in college and now that he is the first rookie quarterback to sign his NFL contract, let us hope that he continues to see many other first-place finishes — ones that matter more than which rookie signed first — throughout his NFL career with the Chicago Bears.