CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — With a pivotal offseason now underway for the Chicago Bears, WBBM sports reporters Rick Gregg and Josh Liss sat down to reflect on the team’s 7-10 season — and looked ahead at some the franchise’s biggest remaining questions, including what to do with Justin Fields and the No. 1 overall draft pick.
Gregg, who covered the team from Halas Hall during the 2023 season, said more than doubling their 2022 win total was one of the “many different ways” the season was a success. But where it really counted, the Bears still fell short.
“They still don’t know who their quarterback is going to be, six to seven months from now,” said Gregg.
It’s a familiar position for Bears fans, one that Liss said probably has the Bears’ faithful feeling “like their organization is running in place a little bit.”
If General Manager Ryan Poles is to be taken at his word, though, the world will have to wait for an answer, at least for a few months. Poles said he’ll wait until closer to make a decision on trading Fields or dealing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Fans, meanwhile, appear split. The day after losing their season finale to the Green Bay Packers, Bears brass returned to Halas Hall to find that some Bears fans planted a series of signs in support of keeping Fields and cornerback Jaylon Johnson. The act went viral, but Gregg something a lot of people missed was what later happened to those signs:
“After we left Halas Hall — I saw it in a social media post that included way too many vulgar words to be put on the air — somebody showed up at Halas Hall and videotaped himself pulling out all of the [Fields signs],” Gregg said. “Not the Jaylon Johnson ones, but the [Fields] ones … the fans are divided.”
A combination of factors, including what Liss described as Fields’ “bad habits” and the fact that the Bears are nearing the end of Fields’ rookie contract years, Liss said there’s “enough to make a strong argument that he’s just not the guy.”
“I think there’s better than 50/50 odds that they turn the page on Justin Fields,” he said.
Regardless of what the Bears do, Gregg said that with the option of keeping Fields or drafting a new quarterback in the 2024 draft, the Bears are in a “very enviable position.”
For more on what to make of the Bears 2023 season and future prospects — including success on defense, the team’s offensive coordinator search, and expectations around a move to the suburbs — listen to the full Looped In: Chicago episode right here or wherever you get your podcasts.
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