All ears will be on Bears at combine
Quarterback question to outweigh other business
INDIANAPOLIS — Bears quarterback 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, however, would be foolish. Poles and the Bears are evaluating USC quarterback Caleb Williams, whom they’ll speak with this week, knowing that they might use the No. 1 overall pick on him in the draft in April. If that’s the direction Poles chooses, he’ll have an incentive to trade Fields before the start of free agency March 13.
Poles doesn’t figure to announce anything at his combine news conference Tuesday. He has no incentive to do so and 2oe weeks left to figure it out.
Rather, the Bears figure to treat the weeklong draft spectacle as a factfinding mission. That’s what happened last year, when conversations with the Panthers during the combine led to the Bears trading them the No. 1 pick five days after Poles left Indianapolis.
Poles has other things to tend to this week. He has another week to negotiate a contract extension with cornerback Jaylon Johnson before the franchise-tag deadline (Johnson is expected to be tagged if the sides can’t reach a deal) and will monitor college receivers, edge rushers and offensive tackles — three positions of interest for the Bears at No. 9 overall.
The quarterback question, though, makes the Bears the talk of the NFL. The next few weeks might get awkward, as evidenced by Fields detailing a scouting report of the Falcons’ offensive players on a podcast last week, but it’s an enviable, powerful position for Poles to be in. Which teams want Fields? What would they be willing to give up? A secondround 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, and his 2025 option, which must be picked up by May 2, is worth $25.7 million — a steep price for someone with his 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 enable the Bears to surround Fields with the biggest draft-pick haul in recent NFL history, depending on how far back they would be willing to slide. Then there’s the third option. Poles won’t rule out the possibility of 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, however, would fall somewhere between impractical and dangerous.
It’s lying season, after all. Seven years ago, then-GM Ryan Pace said the Bears were looking to draft someone who ‘‘elevated his program’’ in college. He then drafted Mitch Trubisky, who had made 13 starts at North Carolina, over Deshaun Watson, who had gone 32-3 at Clemson.