The Chicago Bears best path forward for QB Justin Fields

Phase 3: The 2024 NFL Draft

After declining Field’s option, the Bears will need to find their QB of the future. Most likely, that responsibility will fall on someone not named Justin Fields.

Or perhaps it does.

Either way, the Bears will likely end up with one (or both) of the top two picks in the NFL Draft next season. This will enable them to draft either USC’s Caleb Williams or UNC’s Drake Maye.

With Fields then being on a contract year, the Bears could create a QB battle next year between Fields and their draft pick. If Fields struggles in the preseason, the Bears could perhaps trade him before the season starts or around the 2024 trade deadline.

Of course, this is all just a best-case scenario for the Bears based on their current situation. But it’s important to stress that this is dependent on countless factors, from Fields’s health to how the rest of the season plays out, to their draft position, the NFL combine, the rest of the college football season…we could go on and on.

But this way, the Bears can put their fate in the hands of two talented quarterbacks and hopefully build around one of them for 2025 and beyond.

One year it will happen, Bears fans. One year we’ll have a franchise quarterback.