The Chicago Bears fortuitously landed the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and landed quarterback Caleb Williams, with Ryan Poles spending the better part of the past two offseasons significantly upgrading the offense to create a soft landing for the incoming rookie.
Williams, though, has experienced some of the expected growing pains of a rookie quarterback, including struggling with downfield accuracy in the deep-passing game and timing with star receivers D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, and fellow first-round rookie Rome Odunze.
While Williams has shown some incremental signs of growth, the offense still has lacked rhythm with the Bears emerging from the first month of the season at 2-2.
Meanwhile, Justin Fields has operated the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense at a high level, after being traded last spring, completing 70.6 percent of his passes for 830 yards with three touchdowns to one interception while seemingly finding a home in coordinator Arthur Smith’s offense.
Dallas Cowboys’ Micah Parsons Weighs in On Chicago Bears Quarterbacks
Dallas Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons suggests that Poles and the Bears swapping Williams for Fields may be a decision Chicago ultimately regrets.
“I think Justin [has] won the team over,” Parsons said of Fields’ emergence in Pittsburgh during a recent episode of his “The Edge” Podcast. “Justin is really, really good. … I’m glad that the Steelers and Mike Tomlin [have] been able to get his confidence back, because the Bears probably stripped him of it. They kinda said, ‘We don’t need you anymore. You’re less valuable.’ They kinda just shipped him off. I thought the Bears should’ve kept him. And I thought Justin was a legit talent, and now he’s somewhere else flourishing.”
Fields has certainly been in the midst of arguably the most impressive stretch of his career, but it is difficult to blame the Bears for wanting to turn the page to a prospect with significantly more upside than the former first-round pick showed during his first three seasons.
Besides, whether Fields’ success is sustainable remains to be seen, whereas Williams has the talent around him and the skill-set to make steady strides not only throughout the 2024 season but for years to come in the Windy City.
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