6 reasons why the Chicago Bears made the right decision to trade Justin Fields

In the NFL, it doesn't take long for teams to move to the shiny, new object. The Chicago Bears showcased this on Saturday. Justin Fields, after three seasons of being the Chicago Bears' quarterback, was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2025 conditional sixth-round pick.

The Chicago Bears move on from Justin Fields after three seasons

As previously mentioned, the NFL is a business that moves fast, and it doesn't wait on the situations that could've been. NFL fans must've forgotten that it took Geno Smith four teams and nine seasons to have his first 4,000-yard season as a passer.

The Chicago Bears aren't in the position to wait for their quarterback to progress into who they need him to be for a handful of seasons. Considering where the Bears stand prior to the 2024 NFL Draft, Justin Fields was put in a strange situation.

Fields is entering his fourth season as an NFL quarterback, and things haven't fully clicked. That being said, it's not solely Fields' fault that his time in Chicago didn't work. Saying one side is the sole reason would be silly. There were a slew of reasons this duo didn't work out.

In 2021, the Chicago Bears probably weren't in the best position to trade up for Justin Fields. Yes, Fields was one of the better prospects in that class. That said, Fields was a move to save Ryan Pace's job. It didn't work out as well as Pace would've likely hoped for, and in walked Ryan Poles the following season.

Poles was handed the keys to a rundown beater with a shiny, new steering wheel (Justin Fields), and was told to make the whole car show-ready (Super Bowl champion) in three seasons. Oh, and the funds it would take to make the car show-ready were already partially tied up with older parts of the car that could be pawned off to afford cheaper, better options down the road. So, Ryan Poles tore down the car, leaving a few pieces alongside the shiny, new steering wheel, and was forced to basically start from scratch.

Now, some people can be upset with how Ryan Poles went about building this new car, given the pieces he had. There were certainly mistakes made along the road (i.e., Chase Claypool). But, even that was a cheap, potentially helpful addition to Justin Fields at the time. Claypool just didn't work out. Had he been even a serviceable option for the Bears for a period of time longer than three games, that trade wouldn't seen as monumentally terrible as it was.

While Ryan Poles might've done a poor job of building directly around Justin Fields in his time with the Chicago Bears, it's hard to say that Ryan Poles hasn't made the Bears significantly better as a team since he was handed the keys. From where the Bears were at the time of Ryan Poles' hiring until where he's brought them to now, it's night and day.

There are only a few quarterbacks in the league who would stay put if in the position of Justin Fields, and those teams don't make selections near the top of the draft for a reason. In most situations, Justin Fields is staying with the Bears. However, in this unique situation, it made plenty of sense for the Chicago Bears to trade Justin Fields away.