Bears trade Justin Fields to Steelers

CHICAGO — After an offseason media cycle that constantly fueled debate over who the Chicago Bears starting quarterback should be next season, the Bears finally pulled the trigger and traded Justin Fields on Saturday.

According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Bears are trading QB Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in exchange for a 2025 6th-round pick that could go to a 4th-round pick, based on playtime.

The move brings about the end of a short era in Bears history where the former-Ohio State Buckeye endeared himself to fans through his even-keeled demeanor and willingness to face the music from local media, regardless of his performance at any given time on the field over his three-year tenure as Chicago’s QB1.

Fields improved his play as a passer over the last two years, slightly raising his completion percentage (60.4-61.4%) and total passing yards (2,242-2,562), while throwing two less interceptions (11-9) despite having 52 more passing attempts (370-318).

Although his rushing numbers dipped year-over-year from 2022-23, Fields still finished the 2023 regular season strong, where he led the NFL in QB rushing yards over the final seven weeks of the season (420), and was second in QB yards-per-carry (5.5).

In the end though, general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus decided it was time for the organization move in another direction under center.

According to Pro Football Focus, Fields ranked 20th out of 28 quarterbacks in passing grade last year, and was 26th among the same sample size in completion percentage, ahead of only Zach Wilson (60.1%) and Bryce Young (59.8%).

His penchant for holding onto the ball too long and turning the ball over in late-game situations was also an Achilles heel for Fields while he was in Chicago.

Of the 28 quarterbacks who had 50% of 712 dropbacks in 2023, Fields had the slowest average time to throw (TTT) of the group, 3.39 seconds, which was more than two-tenths of a second slower than the next slowest QB, reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at 3.17 seconds.

What makes Fields’ TTT even more concerning was that the writing was on the wall in college. Coming out of Ohio State University, Fields was 110th out of 114 quarterbacks tracked by PFF in average TTT at the time, holding onto the ball an average of 3.14 seconds before releasing a spiral.

As the Chicago Sun-Times’ Patrick Finley pointed out back in December, Fields struggled mightily throwing the ball during the 2023 NFL regular season when trailing during the last four minutes or less of the game.

Heading into the Bears final regular season game against the Green Bay Packers — a matchup Chicago would go on to lose, 17-9 — Fields owned the NFL’s worst passer rating in such situations, 22.1. Under the same criteria, the Indianapolis Colts’ Gardner Minshew was in possession of the second-worse passer rating, 42.4, a rating nearly double that of Fields.

A year prior wasn’t much better either. Fields’ passer rating while trailing with four minutes or less to go was 37.1, 24^th out of 25 quarterbacks to make at least 20 throws in that situation.

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