NEWSLETTER
The NFL offseason never feels as long as it actually is. Even for fans of teams that don’t make the playoffs, there’s always something to our interest and bridge the gap to the heavy transaction period at the start of the new league year. Normally, it’s the standard stuff: The rumors. The mock drafts. The cap space projections. But sometimes, something so off-the-wall flies onto our radar, we can’t help but address it.
For example … Warren Sapp saying the Bears will be looking to trade Justin Fields this offseason. It’s so insatiably wild, and it comes straight up out of nowhere, but here it is:
The quote:
“What I’m hearing out of Chicago is they’re going to package him up, trade him for some other pieces, and then go with the Bryce kid from Alabama. … Oh, trust me. There’s smoke everywhere talking about them trading Justin Fields and going after Bryce.”
I can only speak for myself, but I didn’t have Pro Football Hall of Fame Warren Sapp going on a podcast with retired three-time All-Star second baseman Bret Boone to drop a hot Bears trade rumor on my January BINGO card. But, hey, who doesn’t love a surprise spin on the rumor mill? That said, this isn’t the type of thing that usually surfaces during AFC and NFC Championship Week.
As for the trade proposal, itself, part of me thinks that we can’t rule anything out. Even something as ridiculous as the above. Perhaps there is a timeline in which the Bears consider trading Fields for an offer GM Ryan Poles can’t refuse, re-stocking the farm with a treasure trove of picks, drafting Bryce Young, and then moving forward from that point.
That would be the type of hard, organizational reset that no one will have seen coming. And because there is a non-zero chance it happens (remember, Poles didn’t draft Fields!), I don’t think there’s any harm in sharing that angle as one possible path.
But it just doesn’t seem realistic. Poles and the Bears have publicly backed Fields at every turn. And to his credit, Fields made the most of a crummy situation and put together a season to remember. There are enough Fields highlights from the 2022 campaign to keep me entertained this offseason. Which means there are definitely enough sizzle reels to have me thinking he truly is the Bears’ quarterback of the future.
What do you think, is Sapp onto something? Or is he entirely off-base?
