Bear Digest

Why Warren Sapp Needs a New Source

The suggestion on a podcast by Warren Sapp that the Bears are going to trade Justin Fields needs more explanation than simply saying he "heard" it.
Gene Chamberlain|
Why Warren Sapp Needs a New Source
Why Warren Sapp Needs a New Source

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Chicago Bears

The only thing more ridiculous than Warren Sapp saying he hears the Bears are going to trade Justin Fields is there are actually people who give someone with so little regard for reality a chance to make this kind of public statement and, worse, some people actually believe him.

The Bret Boone Podcast needs to clean up its act if this is typical of its guests.

When you put Sapp on any kind of show, this is what will happen. His comments sound like he's been smoking something ... again.

Do a search and put a word like predicts or believes next to Sapp's name and the result is a long list of brash claims and opinions, and almost always it is nothing more than what he thinks.

Actually, this gives him too much credit. There isn't much thought put into it. It's just babbling to cause a stir.

Let's explore this so-called trade of Justin Fields that is occurring in the mind of one Warren Sapp and you'll see the reasons why it's so ridiculous.

1. The Message.

"What I'm hearing out of Chicago is they're fixing to package him up, trade him for some other pieces and then go with the Bryce kid from Alabama," Sapp said on the podcast of a former baseball player.

Trade him for pieces? What does that even mean? Pieces. 

And package him up? Give me a break.

Cardboard box? Brown wrapping paper? What are we talking here?

What on earth would they be putting Fields with for a package to trade him, anyway? Who's going with him then in this package deal the Bears are "fixing"? Sapp didn't say the Bears were getting a package deal, he said the Bears were going to "package him up," which means they're shipping others out with him or something else with him.

Who would be going with him? Draft picks?

If the Bears trade anyone and especially Fields, they are looking for draft picks, not trying to trade them away.  

Maybe it's a player like Cole Kmet they're trading with him or maybe they want to trade coach Matt Eberflus, too, like the trade Sapp's old team, Tampa Bay, once made to get Jon Gruden.

If they can get two first-rounders, two second-rounders and $8 million like the Raiders got for Gruden, so much for the HITS principle. They could let Luke Getsy coach the team. But that's all fantasy, just like Sapp's rumor.

At the very least, if Sapp is going to go on what is reported to be a national podcast, he should at least say exactly what he means instead of "fixing to package things up." No one knows what he means by that.

2. The Source

He never said anything about where he heard this or who told him, or if it was even a "source" or "reputable source" or someone who would know.

For all we know, he overheard a discussion between two people at a bar.

Maybe the source was Johnny the shoeshine boy who was Frank Drebin's secret source in the old Police Squad shows.

3. The Logic

The Bears have a quarterback with two years of experience with little help at receiver or the offensive line and he has had one year of legitimate quarterback coaching.

He's such a dynamic athlete that he just set a league record for rushing in a game and very nearly did it for a full season. He has displayed incredible accuracy in deep passing at times and it's only the easy part of passing where he needs work. That's the short passing game the more common passers seem to have down.

So instead of being willing to work on the easier short game with him  for another season when they still have leeway because it is only the second year of a rebuild, the coaches are going to throw it away, scrap whatever they got done last year, and bring in a rookie quarterback? That naturally means another losing season. It's an awful big risk. And they're going to do this with Young, a QB who is only 5-foot-10, 190 pounds and isn't the most dangerous runner. A 5-10 QB in the modern NFL who isn't a scrambler is going to last about six or seven quarters.

Young has run for 162 yards and seven TDs in his college career, which encompassed 30% more games than Fields' career. Fields ran for 1,133 yards and 19 TDs in college.

But they're going to go after the 5-10 quarterback who doesn't run as well because they think he can pass better, although he won't be able to see receivers over the 6-5 defensive linemen.

OK.

And they think he can pass better based on...? 

Fields' college passing numbers were better in many cases than Young's. He averaged 9.2 yards per attempt to Young's 8.8. He had 68.4% accuracy and Young 65.8. Young had 331 more attempts than Fields, yet threw for only 13 more TD passes.

4. Cart Before the Horse

GM Ryan Poles said he had to be "blown away" to make a move something like this for a quarterback.

There is no way he's been blown away by Young yet when his passing hasn't been markedly better than Fields' passing was in college.

What is required is the combine and pro days first to at least provide added information. 

Well, if Poles hasn't had the pro days and combine to supplement this information, then there is no way they've made this decision to "package" anyone "up" at this point so that Sapp's source, the shoeshine boy, could learn all of this and reveal it.

Maybe in the future Poles will decide he's been blown away when he actually has more data and time to make such a decision. This is January and there are still about 90 days until the draft.

Perhaps when there has been more time devoted by personnel people to the topic, then Sapp can go on the Bret Boone Bungler's Hour or whatever it's called, and tell everyone the Bears are going to package up Justin Fields for that Stroud kid from Ohio State.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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