The Chicago Bears Twitter Civil War was like nothing we had ever seen in sports social media. Fans of teams around the league would sit back with their popcorn GIFs and watch the Bears fan base tear themselves apart over one question: Should the Bears go with Justin Fields or Caleb Williams at quarterback?
This debate started in October when it was clear the Bears’ season was headed in the wrong direction, as was the season of the Carolina Panthers. The Bears held both their own and Carolina’s first-round
picks, so the odds were growing exponentially that the Bears would have an excellent chance at landing a QB prospect with a big-time upside: Caleb Williams.
Some fans pivoted early, with fingers crossed that the first overall pick would end up in Chicago; others felt Fields was the future, and if that pick landed in Ryan Poles’ lap, that he needed to trade the pick for assets to build around Fields.
As the season ended, the Bears did indeed hold the first (and ninth) picks of the first round of the draft, and the debate about Fields and Williams only intensified.
In the end, of course, Ryan Poles kept the first overall pick, drafted Caleb Williams, and traded Justin Fields. We’ve also learned through various media reports that the debate wasn’t ever really about Fields or Williams; it was about Williams vs the other rookie quarterbacks, and Fields wasn’t as much of a consideration as many thought.
But let’s put that aside. Let’s say that Ryan Poles, Matt Eberflus, and the staff said, “I think we can make something happen with Justin Fields. Let’s trade the first overall pick and build around Justin.”
What do the Chicago Bears look like now? We did a fan fiction as to how this would have played out.
The Contract
First things first, we cannot trade the first overall pick and only pick up Justin Fields’ 5th year option. We need to extend Justin Fields and commit to him. We need free agents to know, this is Justin Fields’ team, join up, and let’s win together.
Based on where Fields was after his 2023 season, there’s no way he was in line for Trevor Lawrence-like money. You can say Trevor Lawrence shouldn’t have received Trevor Lawrence-like money, but that’s a different article. The quarterback contract you have to look at is Daniel Jones. Jones signed a 4-year, $160 million contract in March of 2023 with $82 million guaranteed. Figure one year later, Fields and the Bears could use this contract as a guide, with a slightly bigger number.
The Bears and Fields agree to a 4-year, $180 million contract. Jones got a little more than half of that guaranteed; figure similarly for Fields. Fields gets $95 million guaranteed with the Bears.
The Trade
Now let’s clarify one thing with “the haul.” We need to be reasonable with what level of assets the trade would have secured. There was this idea that the Bears were going to trade down 2 or 3 spots and land Marvin Harrison Jr, and get more draft picks than they got for the Panthers trade the year prior. That wasn’t going to happen. So let’s find a reasonable trade partner.
Trading back with Washington at 2 or New England at 3 was never going to land the massive haul that Bears fans wanted, especially with two other highly regarded QB prospects, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye, as fallback options for those teams.
The Arizona Cardinals were still hoping Kyler Murray would be their guy. The LA Chargers at 5 had Justin Herbert. The New York Giants at 6 is where it gets interesting.
There have been plenty of reports that the Giants really tried to move up to select Drake Maye, but couldn’t find a trade partner. Enter Ryan Poles. The Giants secure the number one pick by trading the 6th overall pick, the 47th pick overall (the Giants had traded away their own 2nd round pick for Brian Burns and picked up Seattle’s 2nd round pick for Leonard Williams). The Bears also secure a first and third round pick in 2025, and a 2026 2nd round pick.
The haul has arrived. Bears fans rejoice. The 2024 draft arrives, and the top 3 QBs, Marvin Harrison, and Joe Alt go off the board as expected. The Bears are sitting at 6. They need OL or WR help for Justin Fields. Malik Nabers is on the board, but Ryan Poles has concerns about his football character. He makes the move for the WR he loves; he selects Rome Odunze with the 6th overall pick.
Malik Nabers goes to the Tennessee Titans with the 7th pick, the Falcons select Michael Penix, and the Bears, with the 9th overall pick, take Olu Fashanu, the left tackle from Penn State.
The Bears didn’t have a 2nd round pick that season because they had traded it away for Montez Sweat, but now they have the 47th pick from the Giants, and they select West Virginia Center Zach Frazier (who they had an official visit with before the draft).
The 2024 Season
Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus have hired Shane Waldron to unlock Justin Fields. They signed D’Andre Swift and figure an offense with Swift behind Fields, as well as DJ Moore, Odunze, and Cole Kmet, will give Fields the type of weapons he needs to bring everything together.
The season gets off to a bumpy start, and Justin Fields looks similar to how he looked in 2023. There isn’t any noticeable improvement from Fields. The team rallies from a 1-3 start to win their next two and head to 3-3 at the bye.
Unfortunately, things fall apart rapidly after that. The Commanders don’t need a Hail Mary to win the game, as there were no fourth-quarter heroics to make the game close; they handled the Bears easily, and things faded quickly. Fields gets injured in the Arizona game, and Tyson Bagent comes out and beats the New England Patriots. Fans start questioning if there should be a QB switch, but after losing the next three games, Fields is ready to come back to start for the San Francisco game. The 49ers beat down the Bears; the slide continues.
The offense, still under Shane Waldron, is sputtering. Fields continues to target Moore heavily, but he rarely gets the ball to Odunze, and fans are questioning if Odunze is the problem, or if it’s Fields, or if it’s Waldron. After a massive beatdown by the Minnesota Vikings, where the team falls to 4-10, Kevin Warren has seen enough, and he has both Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus fired. Not only is Warren upset with how the season has gone under Eberflus, but he also questions the decision to keep Fields over the three rookie quarterbacks, all of whom are showing promise, and Jayden Daniels is the story of the season.
The Bears lose their remaining games, including their final game of the season against the Green Bay Packers, and finish the season 4-13.
2025 GM and Coaching Search
Kevin Warren sets off to look for his new general manager. He gives Ian Cunningham a long look, but Warren wants to start fresh with his guy. He knows Ray Agnew from their days together with the Rams many years ago, so he hires the Lions assistant General Manager for his new GM/head of football operations.
Warren is hoping that Agnew can help draw Ben Johnson to Chicago. But Johnson knows how critically important it is for the job he chooses to have a quarterback he can win with. He doesn’t see it in Justin Fields, and he doesn’t see it with the top QB prospects of the 2025 NFL Draft either. Johnson doesn’t feel Chicago is the fit for him. He declines the opportunity to come to Chicago.
The Bears are forced to pivot. The finalists for their position are Aaron Glenn, Mike McCarthy, and Brian Flores. They decide after the chaotic 2024 season that they need a leader of men who won’t allow a locker room to be anarchy like it was in Chicago, plus, there are ties to Minnesota. Flores is named the next head coach of the Chicago Bears.
2025 Offseason
The Bears now have a head coach who has no interest in developing a young quarterback; they want to go out and land a veteran QB, but they have significant money invested in Justin Fields, who has to remain on the roster for one more season to avoid a massive cap hit. The Bears can’t swing for a guy like Sam Darnold, who Flores knows, because of their Fields contract.
The Bears settle on bringing in Jacoby Brissett to compete with Fields and Bagent. The QB situation feels completely in disarray as they move towards the NFL Draft.
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft, the Bears have their own first and second round picks, as well as the Giants’ 1st and 3rd round picks. After the 2024 season with Caleb Williams (they went 3-14 in reality), the Giants go 5-12, and the Bears end up with the 4th and 7th picks in the 2025 first round.
With Brian Flores here, the Bears make an investment in the DLine with the 4th pick and select Michigan’s Mason Graham. With the 7th pick, they take Texas’ Kelvin Banks, with the plan to move him inside to guard.
With the Bears’ two 2nd round picks, they select Boston College Edge Donovan Ezeiruaku, and with the 41st pick, they select Michigan CB Will Johnson.
In the 3rd round, they select Oklahoma State LB Nick Martin and Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson.
The Bears head into the 2025 season with plenty of talent on the roster, but serious questions at quarterback.
Their roster looks like this:
They have Brissett, Bagent, and Fields at QB.
They have Swift, Kaleb Johnson, and Roschon Johnson at RB.
They have Cole Kmet as their primary TE.
Their OL includes Olu Fashanu, Kelvin Banks, Zach Frazier, and Darnell Wright.
Their DL includes Montez Sweat, Ezeriuaku, Austin Booker, Mason Graham, Andrew Billings, and Gervon Dexter.
Their LB room is TJ Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds, Nick Martin, and Noah Sewell.
Their secondary looks similar to what it does in reality, but Will Johnson is the Bears’ primary CB backup.
For those wondering about free agent acquisitions, the Bears have been limited in terms of how much they can spend because they’ve committed $45 million a year to Justin Fields.
2025 Regular Season
Pundits are torn because many analysts like the team’s overall roster, but have serious questions about their quarterback situation. Fields is the team’s QB coming out of camp (largely due to the contract), and things aren’t great out of the gate.
With Fields under center, the Bears start 1-4. The offense struggles to score points, but Flores and the defense look pretty strong and cause problems for opposing offenses. To try and spark the offense, the Bears pivot from Fields to Brissett.
Brissett goes 2-2 over the next 4 games, the offense certainly looks more functional, but it isn’t fully clicking either. The 3-6 Bears head to Minnesota, where Brissett gets hurt, Fields comes in, and the Vikings eke out a win in this one, and the Bears drop to 3-7. The Bears announce that with the Brissett injury, they are pivoting to Tyson Bagent.
Bagent starts the next 5 games, and the Bears go 2-3, beating Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but losing twice to Green Bay. The Bears pivot back to Brissett, who proceeds to lose to San Francisco, but with Detroit’s spot set in the playoffs, they rest people, and the Bears win their final game of the season to finish the year 6-11.
2026 Offseason
The Bears enter the 2026 offseason with a serious dilemma. What will they do at quarterback? The Bears released Justin Fields, and Brissett was on a one-year deal; they retain Tyson Bagent as their backup quarterback, but what do they do as their starting quarterback?
The options are limited. Kyler Murray could be available via trade. They could try to draft a rookie. The Bears are in a difficult situation. They have a head coach who is known to be particularly demanding of quarterbacks, and they lack a clear path to acquire an established veteran who can effectively handle Flores’s coaching style.
The Bears even have a conversation with Aaron Rodgers to see if he would be interested in coming to Chicago, but he decides to retire.
In the end, they find no path to a veteran quarterback and decide they will try to use their 2 second-round picks and the 10th overall selection to move up higher in the draft to land a quarterback. The Bears trade the 10th overall pick, their 2nd-round picks, and their 2027 1st overall pick to the Tennessee Titans to move up to the 2nd overall pick, where they take Oregon QB Dante Moore (Fernando Mendoza went 1st overall to the Las Vegas Raiders).
Here is your 2026 Chicago Bears:
GM: Ray Agnew
HC: Brian Flores
QB: Dante Moore, Tyson Bagent
RB: D’Andre Swift, Kaleb Johnson
WR: DJ Moore, Rome Odunze
TE: Cole Kmet
OL: T Darnell Wright, T Olu Fashanu, C Zach Frazier, G Kelvin Banks, G TBD
DL: Montez Sweat, Gervon Dexter, Mason Graham, Donovan Ezeiruaku
LB: TJ Edwards, Nick Martin
S: Kevin Byard, Jaquan Brisker
CB: Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, Kyler Gordon, Will Johnson
Same Old Bears
Had the Bears taken the haul, in this author’s eyes, Ryan Poles would have lost his job, Ben Johnson would have declined the job offer from Chicago, and the Bears would have a solid roster, but no answers at quarterback.
Could Dante Moore be an elite QB, and this version of the Chicago Bears would be ready to take off? That’s possible, but Moore could be another QB prospect that doesn’t work in Chicago, and no question that having a rookie QB with Brian Flores vs Caleb Williams with Ben Johnson is a wildly different situation.
In short, the haul would have been the wrong call. Fields’ career has sputtered since leaving Chicago, and there’s no reason to think the career path would have been any different had he remained with the Bears. The bottom line, when a franchise has an opportunity to swing for a franchise quarterback, you have to make that leap every time.
Ryan Poles made the right decision, and because of that, the Bears are in perhaps the best position the franchise has seen in decades.
