Bears Insider Hints At Division In Halas Hall On Justin Fields

Yesterday, I wrote about Matt Eberflus' weird press conference where he seemed to waffle on the subject of why Justin Fields wasn't ready to play for Thursday night against Carolina. He stated he wasn't medically cleared but then seemed to indicate there was still a chance he might play. It was so odd. The man looked like he didn't have a clear idea of what he was supposed to say. I then revealed a source told me that GM Ryan Poles and others inside Halas Hall were delaying Fields' return.

It appears there is a desire to move on from the embattled quarterback in 2024. Poles has seen enough. He wants to find his own guy. However, that decision would become complicated if Fields happened to return and play well down the stretch, winning some meaningless games in a lost season. Yes, it sounds way too conspiratorial. However, Adam Hoge of CHGO revealed rumblings of his own. Apparently, some inside the organization are also surprised Fields isn't playing.

"I’m surprised Justin Fields isn’t playing tonight. And I know some inside Halas Hall are surprised too. One source I spoke with expected Fields to return last week against the Saints. Is Fields 100 percent? No. But he might not be 100 percent in 11 days against the Lions either. Based on what I saw in practice Wednesday — and it’s admittedly a small portion of practice we get to see — I saw a quarterback capable of playing tonight. Coupling this knowledge with Matt Eberflus’ odd “doubtful but out” press conference yesterday — well, something doesn’t add up here."

Justin Fields will return, but his window is closing.

The thumb injury might be getting leveraged as a convenient excuse to hold the quarterback out. Maybe they're hoping Tyson Bagent gives them a reason to keep him in. More likely, they're trying to narrow Fields' window to make his case for keeping the job. If he'd returned against New Orleans as many expected, that would've given him nine games—more than half of a season. Now he's looking at seven games, presuming he returns after the mini-bye week against Detroit. Five of those games will be against opponents with top-10 defenses. Fields has averaged 150 yards passing with 11 TDs and 10 interceptions since the start of 2022 against such opponents.

Maybe things are getting blown out of proportion. Still, it feels more and more like the organization is ready to move on from Justin Fields. His health problems persist. The sack numbers haven't gone down despite improvement on the offensive line. He's still not protecting the ball well enough. There isn't enough evidence to justify giving him another season. Plenty of people will disagree with that, but the lack of proof says it all. At some point, a team has to stop betting on potential.