After landing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft thanks to a shrewd pre-draft trade just one year ago with the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears entered the offseason in a favorable position, sitting pretty in the Caleb Williams market while also having a young quarterback in Justin Fields available via trade after a strong close to his third season.
But in the off-season, Bears’ GM Ryan Poles found that the trade market for Fields wasn’t as strong as he was hoping it would be, eventually leading to him accepting a conditional sixth-round pick for Fields from the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2025 NFL Draft, which he said was one of the hardest things he’s had to do in his career.