Chicago Bears Unsure If Justin Fields Is the Guy Whose Life They Want to Continue Ruining
No clear direction
By Lauren Grimaldi
CHICAGO - As the regular season comes to an end and the Chicago Bears start to plan for their first overall pick in the 2024 Draft, sources tell End of the Bench that the front office is undecided on whether they’d like to continue ruining quarterback Justin Fields’ life or start fresh and wreck a new quarterback’s hopes and dreams.
While the Bears are proud of the progress they’ve made in forcing Fields to run for his life on every play, the chance to ruin a new quarterback from scratch is also “enticing,” says Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
“We’re at an exciting time in our organization’s history,” Poles added. “We have a great quarterback right now who we’ve forced to contemplate whether he even likes playing football anymore. On the flip side, we could take someone like Drake Maye or Caleb Williams and make them regret the day they ever picked up a football for the first time. We’re in a good position.”
Bears fans are also at a crossroads in deciding whether they want Fields back on the team.
“He just might not be the guy,” said Brandon Knoll, a dispirited Bears fan at a suburban Buffalo Wild Wings. “Trubisky wasn’t the guy either and neither was any other quarterback that the franchise has had since it began in 1920. We’ve got a chance to make real history here continuing that trend, so we can’t screw it up.”
After giving it some thought, Knoll added that it seems like the Bears themselves are the problem and should be forced to do some self-reflection before being allowed to draft another quarterback and continue their reign of terror on the lives of young college stars.
“No, no, that can’t be it,” he added before dousing another wing in Bleu cheese.
Bears Chairman George McCaskey said that the front office is weighing all its options, but pushed back on the argument that the Bears are life-ruiners who just want to see the fanbase and players suffer.
“I think we do a great job at developing quarterbacks,” McCaskey said. “I mean, none of them stick around for too long because we train them to either fall off the face of the earth or go be a third-stringer somewhere. Nobody else can do what we do.”
At press time, a source close to former USC star and presumed number one overall pick Caleb Williams said that the quarterback was strongly considering forgoing the draft this year, but insisted it has nothing to do with the Bears having the first pick.
“I mean, who wants to play in the NFL anyway?” a source close to him told End of the Bench. “It’s not necessarily always been a priority for Caleb and he certainly wouldn’t want to make any rash decisions that could end up ruining his life before it even begins.”
End of the Bench will have more as soon as we turn our attention to hockey season.
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I remember when Payton (not Peyton) was on the QB depth chart.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/10/sports/payton-in-quarterback-debut.html
This NY Times article reads like End of the Bench.
"...any other quarterback the franchise has had since it began in 1920." Does that mean that the quarterback of their predecessor team, the Decatur Staleys, are also included?