Report: Bears received ‘inquiries from teams’ regarding a Justin Fields trade

A recent report suggests the Bears haven’t shopped quarterback Justin Fields, but teams have inquired about his availability.

The Chicago Bears have yet to make a public decision on their quarterback situation for 2024, but a recent report from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated’s Mondy Morning Quarterback indicates there’s some interest around the league for current starter Justin Fields.

“Chicago staffers got inquiries from other teams on Fields in Mobile [the Senior Bowl]. Breer wrote this morning, “And while the Bears haven’t shopped Fields, those conversations did allow the team to start to gauge the 2021 first-rounder’s worth out there on the market.”

Breer goes on to say that Bears’ brass plans to meet over the next couple of weeks to “finalize plans at quarterback, with the expectation that they’ll have the plan in place in Indianapolis next week.”

Indianapolis is where the NFL Combine takes place, and it’s where the framework for many offseason deals begins to formulate.

Last season, the Bears started to ramp up trade talks surrounding their 2022 first-overall pick, and on March 10, a few days before free agency, the trade with the Panthers was announced.

I would expect a similar time frame whether the Bears decide to trade Fields or trade the first overall pick because such a deal is franchise-altering.

Breer guesses that Chicago general manager Ryan Poles will stay at one and draft USC’s Caleb Williams, but again, nothing has been decided yet.

He closed his Bears thought with this paragraph.

Now, the Bears love Fields as a person, and really like him as a player, so I would say that whatever they do in the next few weeks will be with respect to a guy who gave them a lot, physically and otherwise, over the last three years. But I think the reality, for Chicago, will be that the talent of Caleb Williams plus the chance to reset the quarterback-on-a-rookie-contract clock will be too much for Chicago to pass on. We’ll see.

Players begin arriving at the NFL Combine on February 26, with the on-field workouts starting on February 29, and NFL free agency starts on March 13, with the early negotiation window opening on March 11.