Is the Bears Fan Civil War Ending?
It's been going on now for two months, since the regular season ended for the Bears with another disgusting performance at Green Bay against the Packers.
Much has happened in that period. It seems these days the Bears and Packers are getting along better even than Bears fans do with each other.
In fact, the two teams' opposing head coaches were sitting together watching a Marquette-UConn game in Milwaukee Wednesday, having a good time, and this after Matt Eberflus has built an 0-6 record against Matt LaFleur.
More disturbing even than the teams' coaches being buddy-buddy is how Bears fans have been at each others' throats the way they have over the last two months. And they have, day-in, day-out, hour-in, hour-out.
It's a civil war on social media.
Justin Fields needs to stay, Justin Fields needs to go and Caleb Williams needs to be the quarterback, Justin Fields needs to stay and they should also draft Caleb Williams ... wash, rinse, repeat.
Go to social media where there are Bears fans and this in-house battle has raged on and off with both sides enjoying bright days of victory, excitement and also defeat.
Fields fans got charged up because their guy was in an ad for this fall's London game. Surely the Bears wouldn't put that ad out with Fields on it if they intended to trade him. Talk about delusional.
It could all be coming to a close soon as the start of free agency Wednesday is a barrier of sorts, although definitely not a concrete one of any type. Monday might even be the better deadline because the negotations can begin and teams know who's getting who at this point.
Regardless, last year's big trade down from No. 1 happened about the same time.
It seems like a logical time for a trade of Fields, if the Bears have a partner for such a deal. The rumored marketplace has been small. Now ESPN's Adam Schefter has thrown a last life preserver of sorts to the Fields side.
"Justin Fields is a talented quarterback," Schefter said. "I think there are people from that organization that would like to see him stay there, too, which is just omne more little wrench to throw in there."
Obviously one of those would have to be team president Kevin Warren, who attended Fields' college graduation and knew him from the pandemic when the former Ohio State QB helped to save a Big Ten football season from elimination.
Warren isn't calling shots with the on-field product, though. It's GM Ryan Poles and the Poles/Eberflus duo seems to have decided Caleb Williams is the direction to go, based on comments at the scouting combine by both.
There have been reports of the Bears talking to the Atlanta Falcons, presumably about sending Fields there, but the Falcons are also reported to be interested in QB Kirk Cousins. The Athletic reported the Steelers are not interested now.
If there is no market for Fields with those teams, the next logical thing to do might be to wait until after Round 1 of the draft when some teams who want QBs don't have them. This was a scenario painted by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk as a backstop to the entire process.
However, it was Poles' desire not to leave Fields hanging.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated has maintained all along the Bears will get a Day 2 and Day 3 draft pick for Fields and it will end very soon. This would most likely be sometime between now and 3 p.m. Wednesday, when the new league year begins.
"Simply put, it's not practical for Chicago to wait until mid-April, when the spots available for veteran quarterbacks across the league have filled up, to trade Fields," Breer wrote. "It wouldn’t allow for the Bears to maximize Fields's value. It also wouldn't be doing right by Fields, which is what Chicago GM Ryan Poles told the media he wants to do."
Breer also wrote the Bears won't "just accept a box of scrap," for Fields.
If they want a deal done now or by March 13, they might have to take that box of scrap.
It's difficult to see where the suitors would be coming from if the Falcons do sign Cousins, unless the Steelers have been gaming them all along and really do want Fields for that box of scrap.
The Bears would be better off accepting that box of scrap from a team rather than trading Fields within the NFC North to the Vikings, who could be looking for a QB if Cousins leaves. Maybe they could trade Fields for the box of scrap to another team that would, in turn, trade him to the Vikings. Thus Poles didn't deal him within the division, someone else did. It could all help Poles save face.
The NFL doesn't really work like that.
Instead, the Bears are going to be left with egg on their faces at least briefly over all of this because it's rather embarrassing for someone to leave town after their name was being chanted by fans in Week 17 at Soldier Field.
Perhaps Fields resurrects his career elsewhere.
In the meantime, the Bears will be dealing with their own set of potential headaches. Analysts Merril Hoge, Ryan Leaf and Dan Orlovsky all insist the Bears are making a mistake using the first pick on Williams.
Fields fans love hearing this. Williams fans don't. The war continues.
The start of off-season work with OTAs can't come soon enough. At that point, the two warring forces can come together united behind their reformed team.
That is, until Fields throws his first touchdown pass or wins his first game with his new team in the fall.
Then the hot tempers and arguing will be replaced by hand-wringing and wailing.
Finally, after that they can then return to being friends again, and together they can go back to disliking the Packers—unlike their coach.
BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
