Bears HC reveals message to Justin Fields before trade

A recent article by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer revealed details of the moments leading up to the Chicago Bears’ trade of Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers on March 16, which included head coach Matt Eberflus’ departure message .

“We thanked him for his leadership, for his work ethic and for the man that he is, for how he has always been a great guy,” Eberflus said. “I just told him, ‘Hey, I’ve really enjoyed our relationship together the last two years.’ I said, “It certainly doesn’t stop there. The relationship he and I built over the first two years is special and no one can ever take that away from us.

Fields has had two head coaches and three different offensive coordinators during his three years in the Windy City. It’s an incredibly difficult environment for a young quarterback. And apparently, after Bears general manager Ryan Poles said he wanted to do well with Fields, they passed along a better offer to bring him to the Steelers.

“Bears general manager Ryan Poles finally followed through on the group’s pledge to ‘do the right thing for Justin,’ by dealing Fields to Pittsburgh for at least a better offer from a team with a quarterback -established fullback, Bears team source said,” Pryor wrote.

NBC Sports Chicago’s Jason Goff thinks Fields wasn’t perfect in the situation, but he was dealt a very bad hand.

“He was part of the problem. I think Justin Fields found himself caught in the worst desert you can get in developing a quarterback,” Goff said on the Bomani Jones podcast. Good times with Bomani Jones. “Matt Nagy is about to leave, he wants to play Andy Dalton. He throws it during his first game and says, “Here, play football.” And then he gets sacked nine times by Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney and that Cleveland Browns defense. This is his introduction.

“The second year, (general manager) Ryan Poles comes in: ‘Hey, I have to tear this down, I want to build in a different way.’ The youngest team in the league, by far. He throws to special teams. But also, he does things I didn’t expect him to do, like take off and run as often as he does. Does it all depend on Justin Fields? A significant part is. But I’m not one of those people who thinks this wasn’t one of the worst situations to let a quarterback go.

Fields took a small step forward in 2023, his third year as Chicago’s starting quarterback. The Ohio State alum threw 370 times, completing 227 for 2,562 yards and 16 touchdowns. He threw nine interceptions and maintained an 86.3 passer rating and an average of 5.29 adjusted net yards per attempt.

In 2022, he was 192 of 318 for 2,242 yards, 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, an 85.2 quarterback rating and 4.63 adjusted net yards per attempt.

Since 2022, Fields has the most rushing yards by any quarterback with 1,800 yards and 6.3 yards per carry. Both of those numbers are higher than Lamar Jackson’s.

Mike Tomlin has said multiple times this offseason that Russell Wilson is in pole position to be the Steelers’ starting quarterback in 2024, but there will be a fair battle in training camp for Justin Fields.