Bears GM Ryan Poles looks on prior to a game against the Denver Broncos at Soldier Field in 2023.
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Justin Fields is ready for an answer. So are Bears fans.
To expect general manager Ryan Poles to offer one during the NFL Scouting Combine this week, though, would be foolish. Poles and the Bears are evaluating USC star quarterback Caleb Williams, with whom they’ll speak this week, knowing that they could use the No. 1 overall pick on him in the April draft. If that’s the direction Poles chooses, he’ll be incentivized to agree to a Fields trade before the start of free agency March 13.
Poles doesn’t figure to state his verdict at his annual Combine press conference Tuesday. He has no incentive to — and two-and-a-half weeks left to figure it out.
Rather, the Bears figure to treat the weeklong draft spectacle as a fact-finding mission. That’s what happened last year, when conversations with the Panthers during the Combine yielded the Bears trading the No. 1 pick to them five days after Poles left Indianapolis.
Poles has other questions to tend to this week. He has another week to negotiate a contract extension with Jaylon Johnson before the franchise tag deadline. The cornerback is expected to be tagged if they can’t reach a deal. Poles will monitor college receivers, edge rushers and offensive tackles — three positions of interest for the Bears at No. 9 overall.
The quarterback quandary, though, makes the Bears the talk of the NFL. The next few weeks could get awkward — as evidenced by Fields detailing a scouting report of Falcons offensive players on a podcast last week — but it’s an enviable, powerful position for Poles to be in.
What teams want Fields? What would they be willing to give up: a second-round pick? A third? As for Williams, who seems more likely than Fields to be on the Bears’ 2024 roster: how desperate are teams to trade up to take the best quarterback prospect since Trevor Lawrence?
Keeping Fields would be an act of faith. He’s set to make $4.7 million this season. His 2025 option, which must be picked up by May 2, is worth $25.7 million — a steep price for someone with Fields’ question marks. Williams, by contrast, would be due about $40 million on a four-year deal if he’s drafted first. Trading the pick, however, would allow the Bears to surround Fields with the biggest draft pick haul in recent NFL history — depending on how far back the Bears would be willing to slide.
Then there’s the third way. Poles won’t rule out the possibility of both keeping Fields and drafting Williams. That’s something he’ll tell other teams he’s considering, too, to drive up the price. Actually following through on it, though, would fall somewhere between impractical and dangerous.
It’s lying season, after all. Seven years ago, his predecessor Ryan Pace said the Bears were looking for a draft pick who “elevated his program” in college — and then drafted Mitch Trubisky, who had 13 starts at North Carolina, over DeShaun Watson, who went 32-3 at Clemson.