Ryan Poles, What's the Hurry?
It was on the Friday prior to the start of free agency last year when Ryan Poles sprang the great trade down from No. 1 upon the expectant NFL public.
If he does something like this one year later on the Friday before the start of free agency, it's most likely going to be Justin Fields' departure and not a trade to get him more help like they did when they acquired DJ Moore and draft picks.
The market for Fields seems to have shrunk before Poles' eyes as Kirk Cousins has the Falcons' eyes and the Steelers have confirmed plans to talk to Russell Wilson, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Wilson had been given permission to speak to teams before his official release and does also have interest in going to Pittsburgh, according to the Post-Gazette report.
However, it would be presumptuous to say there will be no market for Fields.
It's possible the Steelers might not like what they hear from Wilson. It's not like his career took a big turn for the better in his later years with Seattle or during his two Denver seasons. He won 11 games in two seasons with Denver.
If that happened, it's hard to see why the Steelers wouldn't be interested in a 36-year-old scrambling passer when they could have one like this with the kind of speed Fields has.
As poor as some of Fields' fourth-quarter passing numbers have been, his overall improvement last year had him at a much higher level than the other two Pittsburgh options—Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph.
Or as ESPN's Mike Greenberg put it: "If 32 teams had the choice of Kenny Pickett or Justin Fields right now, all would take Fields. I don't understand what the Steelers are seeing that the rest of us aren't."
Some Bears fans seem convinced their guy Fields is worth keeping instead of drafting Caleb Williams, and as they continue seeking any little indication No. 1 they were convinced Jaylon Johnson's new contract put $28 million of $76 million coming in Year 1 is an indication he's staying put. Fields new contract would come afterward and the Bears would need the extra cap space for this.
The surest way for the Bears to have a market would be if the Vikings somehow found a way to keep Cousins, though the added incentive of going to a city where his wife's family lives must be added incentive for the 36-year-old veteran.
With all of this lack of interest, there could also be interest.
In other words, if the Bears insist on trading him in the next few days, it could be there in the form of teams willing to pay much lower in trade return. They might find there are several teams like this, but they'll get little in return.
Never one to express appreciation for someone on the Bears, former NFL executive turned analyst Michael Lombardi says Fields might need to become a backup somewhere.
ESPN's Adam Schefter sees something similar.
"I don't think the market for him is as robust as the Bears and he had thought,” Schefter said on the Pat McAfee Show.
All of this has led to talk of smokescreens and agendas, of rebuilding teams possibly even moving back for extra picks and then trading for Fields because they still would need a quarterback after acquiring all the extra picks.
It's difficult to picture anyone doing this type of thing at this point but the possibility of it is a reason why the Bears need to keep Fields for now and wait.
Much can happen under the spotlight of being on the clock. A lot can change.
Poles may have said he wanted to avoid keeping Fields hanging, but in the end if he can't get what he suspects might develop later when all the choices dry up, he owes it to his employers to keep Fields living "in the gray." It's possible the payoff could be better then.
After all, it's the Bears and not Fields who would be paying Poles' salary.
A year ago when Poles made his famous trade down and set up this current situation by getting Carolina's first-round pick, the Bears GM was in command of the market.
This is a different situation entirely, one dictated by Cousins' decision and by the guessing game the Steelers seem to be playing.
The Bears can't afford to worry about feelings of players they're trading away and need to step up and play this trade game the way it needs to be played. They can't have a hand tied behind their backs, and that's what happened when Poles said he'd prefer not to keep Fields hanging.
Instead, the Bears GM needs to go back to his previous statement from January, when he said he might take his decision right into April.
They Bears need to reverse all pressure and keep Fields until the draft, if necessary.
Then some team completely in need will be more willing to give up sommething of significance for a player who is obviously better than Kenny Pickett and a lot of other NFL QBs, just not good enough to keep in Chicago another season.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
