Resetting the Board on Justin Fields

Ignoring all previous debate and rumors, Bears GM Ryan Poles on Tuesday reset the entire Justin Fields narrative at the combine to exactly where it was when he spoke to media after the 2022 season ended.

Justin Fields is the Bears quarterback going forward and Poles again said at the combine that he had to be "blown away," to trade his starter and select one of the quarterbacks in this draft.

"That's the plan right now and like I said, we're going to do our homework on this class and if something changes, and again, just to use the same statement, we get 'blown away' to say, you know what, I think this (trade) is best for our organization," Poles said.

However, Poles this time defined the much-discussed term "blown away," the one he had also used at season's end

"When you watch it over and over and go like, 'wow, this is different,' " Poles said. "But it's the collection of anticipation, arm talent, arm strength, accuracy. It's all of the categories that you look for in a quarterback.

Bryce Young has arrived at the combine pic.twitter.com/7KpMKZhs9g
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"And then, like we talked about here, it's the person. You need to be a unique human beig to play this position in this league with this pressure and just to be able to keep coming game after game after game and also critique yourself and get better year after year. It's a huge checklist but we'll go down that and just be sure that we're doing the right thing."

Poles acknowledged being aware of the Adam Schefter report for ESPN saying the Bears would be looking to trade down from No. 1, presumably allowing them to keep Fields as starter. He said this situation is no different than what he already had said.

"Nothing has changed there," he said. "I saw the deal from yesterday in terms of leaning one way or the other. You know, I think that's always been the case. We've always leaned that way because Justin's done some good things. I'm excited about where his game is going to go.

"But at the same time, when you sit in our situation at one overall you have to do your due diligence. You have to investigate everything. You've got to spend time with those guys (QBs in the draft) just to make sure we're making the right decision."

Poles said he has been approached about both the No. 1 pick and Fields but nothing specific.

"Yeah there's been a lot of different scenarios and it's really just kind of starter conversations right now," he said. "So nothing specific about players, picks and all that. It's just interest."

Fields is being kept abreast of the situation.

"What's important to me, I think everyone knows me by now and how I want to treat our players," Poles said. "We'll be in communication with Justin along the way just to make sure that he knows what we're doing and nothing is a surprise to him.

"We anticipated this a while ago so we've been in communication with him."

This might sound like he's laying groundwork for Fields to depart but Poles said it was merely done to maintain communications.

"It was just there was going to be a lot of noise and just know that I'm going to keep you up to date with what we're doing and why we're doing it," he said. "And I think that's important for him to kind of know what we're doing."

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