The Bears had the No. 1 pick last year. With Justin Fields headed into only his third season, the Bears passed on taking Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud. Instead, they traded the top choice to the Panthers.
The Bears, via the Panthers’ pick, currently hold the top pick for the 2024 draft.
They are more likely to pick a quarterback this year than they were last year, and Fields knows it.
“I mean, life isn’t fair,” Fields said Wednesday, via Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago. “I’m just focused on what I can control, and the rest is in God’s hands.
“Wherever, if I’m here next year, if I’m not, football doesn’t define who I am as a person. My happiness will still be in the same place, will still be in God. . . . I know that God’s got me, and I’m going to be good. I’m very blessed in the position I am in, and I think a million people would love to be in the position I am right now. So really just, I’m not taking that for granted and just taking each and every moment I have every day up here to the fullest.”
Fields hasn’t made the Bears’ decision an easy one either way. He has a career-best completion percent (64.4), yards per attempt (7.0), yards per game (198.4) and passer rating (92.3) this season.
The Bears are 2-6 with Fields as their starter this season and 2-2 with undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent, who started when Fields was out with a dislocated right thumb. They are 7-26 in Fields’ career as the starter.
“I’m really just trying to be consistent, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Fields said. “You can play good one game, play bad the other. So me personally, it’s just trying to be consistent and trying to be better than I was yesterday.”
USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and Oregon’s Bo Nix are quarterbacks expected to rank among the top prospects.
Either way, Fields expects to be playing somewhere next season.
“Shoot, since I got to Chicago, y’all don’t hold back,” Fields said. “I hear it from y’all. I hear it from fans and stuff like that. I don’t take any of it personal, because I know everybody’s entitled to their opinion on certain things and stuff like that. That’s one thing I try to do is not take anything personal, and just go about it that way.
“I’ve had moments in my life to where I’ve wanted things to happen that didn’t go that way, and it ended up going another way and it worked out better than I ever could have imagined. That’s really why I just don’t stress about stuff that happens, and just controlling what I control and like I said earlier just being the best person I can be and striving to be the best player I can be.”
