Peter King On Why He Thinks Bears Run It Back With Justin Fields

The Chicago Bears haven't made any decisions yet. Nobody knows what GM Ryan Poles will do once the regular season ends next month. The team is 5-9 and all but out of the playoff picture. Head coach Matt Eberflus and quarterback Justin Fields are under a ton of heat for yet another 4th quarter collapse that saw a winnable game slip away. Both are earning the brand of choke artists. It is why many believe the best course of action is to flush everything and start over at head coach and quarterback next year. This is where Peter King comes in.

The longtime insider has covered the league for a long time. He usually has a good feel for where things sit in an organization. That is why his comments to 670 The Score were so interesting this week. There is no question the loss to Cleveland was rough. It is easy to have emotional reactions to something like that. However, King's assessment was interesting. He feels that Poles is keeping a big-picture view of the Bears' situation. While the fate of Eberflus is unknown, the insider thinks a strong likelihood exists they stick with Fields.

His reasoning was straightforward.

"I would guess, and this is a guess, that he's not totally sold on Justin Fields. But here's sort of the way I look at it. Everybody says, 'Well geez, you're not going to be in a position to take a quarterback this good, drafting this high for a long time.' I totally understand that. If they fall in love with Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, whoever...and think he's the future? That's fine. But I will say two things.

One. You sit right where you are. Don't take any calls or maybe trade down one spot. Two max. I'd probably still get Marvin Harrison. The second possibility is you trade down 9, 10, 12 spots, pick up what I think would be three 1st round picks, and get the very, very solid rebuild over the next two years, and work with Justin Fields a say, 'Okay listen. Maybe we don't have Tom Brady on our team or a guy who's going to deliver multiple Super Bowls. But I want to build this whole team the right way, and if we decide in two years that Fields isn't the guy, then we'll move on. Right now, we want to surround Justin Fields with an excellent, deep into the playoff-caliber team and then we'll just let the chips fall where they may.' That is how I would lean right now."

Peter King thinks Poles will keep the team perspective.

Yes, the quarterback is the most important position in the sport. He will evaluate every single member of the 2024 class. If Williams, Maye, or somebody else blows him away on tape and in interviews, then a change is inevitable. However, if he doesn't see "special" from one of them compared to other prospects on his board, he may decide the better course is continuing to stack the roster with blue-chip talent. That means another weapon at wide receiver, another pass rusher on defense, and so on.

Poles already saw the impact of trading the #1 pick this past year. It landed him a stud receiver in D.J. Moore, a solid right tackle in Darnell Wright, and a 1st round pick that is likely to become #1 overall again. He could turn that pick into another huge package, giving the Bears a mountain of draft capital with which he could retool the roster to levels this organization hasn't seen since the 1980s. Peter King understands the QB concerns. That said, he did make a fair point on that a few weeks ago.

Look at the league's top 10 passers right now.

• 5th overall pick (Tua)
• 7th round pick (Purdy)
• 1st overall pick (Goff)
• 10th overall pick (Mahomes)
• 4th round pick (Dak)
• 2nd overall pick (Stroud)
• 5th round pick (Howell)
• 7th overall pick (Allen)
• 1st overall pick (Lawrence)
• 24th overall pick (Love)

Contrary to popular myth, finding good quarterbacks outside the top five is possible. It's still a team sport.