Justin Fields Gets Honest About Bears’ Ryan Poles

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles has done a great job when it comes to reshpaing his team’s roster. They are on the up-and-up after making the most of owning the No. 1 pick two years in a row. That led to some major decisions, such as having to trade quarterback Justin Fields.

Fields, a first-round pick of the franchise in 2021, was not selected by the current regime in place. Former general manager Ryan Pace made a trade with the New York Giants to get into positon to select the Ohio State star.

Three years later, Justin Fields was on the move. He was no longer the franchise quarterback of the Bears, who selected Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Instead, Fields is now going to be competing for the job with veteran Russell Wilson playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Pittsburgh is where Justin Fields wanted to end up. Trading players is never an easy thing to do, but Ryan Poles made what could have been a very ugly process as amicable as possible. When speaking to reporters for the first time since the trade, Fields gave a shoutout to his former front office.

“Shoutout to Poles, we communicated to him through my agent, and I told him where I wanted to be and this was a place I wanted to be,” Fields said. “He honored that, and I appreciate him for that and glad he was able to put me in a spot where I wanted to be at.”

Part of that communication was Fields knowing a trade would be coming at some point. He revealed it wasn’t such a shock when he received the news while in Milan, Italy at 10 p.m. local time.

That trade is something that can help the Bears for years to come. Ryan Poles did right by a player he inherited, getting a trade done even if there may have been slightly better offers on the table.

That is something players around the league will take notice of. The Bears could land a player in free agency in the future because of how Ryan Poles handled things with Justin Fields. 

At the end of the day, the NFL is a business and some difficult decisions need to be made. But these are still human beings and both sides come away feeling good about how things transpired.