The Chicago Bears won last night, beating the Minnesota Vikings 12-10 in another disgusting prime time showing from the Monsters of the Midway. As you might guess from the final score only the Bears defense walked away feeling good about their performance. The offense on both sides was horrific and Justin Fields struggled once again before hitting one big throw to save the day.
The win moved Chicago a bit down the draft position column, which is one of the few things that matters to the Bears this season as they won their fourth game of 2023. They are still in pole position for the No. 1 overall pick though thanks to the Carolina Panthers, who are the worst team in football and owe their first-rounder to Chicago. Should they continue on that path the rest of the season becomes a tryout of sorts for Fields. He hasn't been good enough to eliminate the possibility the front office takes another quarterback in this draft. He also hasn't been bad enough to say outright replacing him is the obvious decision.
But there's enough of a general body of work to form an opinion and Skip Bayless felt Fields' performance last night was the final nail in the coffin, declaring the Bears have to replace Fields with Caleb Williams.
Williams' stock falling as the season has gone on has complicated the discussion quite a bit. When he was a surefire generational QB prospect the Bears would be the betting favorites to take him even if Fields plays decently. But with Williams now considered more of a standard "great" QB prospect rather than can't-miss, Chicago has a dilemma.
If they swing and miss at Williams while trading Fields then they set the franchise back another five years. If they use the pick on a non-QB to stick with Fields and Williams ends up great, it's another quarterback-related mistake in an extremely long line of them for the franchise. Both paths come with fireable failures and neither is a clear-cut step above the other.
We've got a long way to go until April and will see the above discussion take place in a thousand different ways on a hundred different shows over that period of time. The only chance we don't is if Fields breaks out or collapses to a Mac Jones degree over these last six weeks.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Skip Bayless: The Bears Should Move On From Justin Fields .
