What are the Bears going to do with the Panthers #1 draft pick?

All right back to the National Football League. So we've already seen it. We've already talked mock draft blah blah blah.

We on Friday. We had the guy from 33rd team talking about mock drafts and the top two players in this draft. Maybe the top three players in this draft are all quarterbacks. So you've got Caleb Williams who declared Drake May in the draft Jayden Daniels from LSU. The Heisman Trophy winner in the draft. I think Daniels is the third quarterback at probably barely a top five player. If we were just ranking the players based on how good they are. But I think the first two guys are probably the first two players in this draft. Maybe Marvin Harrison Jr. is the best player in the draft, but quarterbacks going to go one and two if it's even close.

If that keeps on giving. Dan Wiederer covers the Bears for the Chicago Tribune, and he joins us on the Adam Gold show. First of all, I hope I hope they do it. They use it wisely. There has been some debate whether or not they should keep Justin Fields or trade Justin Fields. Where do you fall on this? You said some debate in the city of Chicago. That's the debate. It's a 24 hour a day shouting match on social media.

Why is there any debate? Right. Would be my answer to that, but I will say this that Justin has, um. Given this fan base a lot to cheer for over the last three years. He's given them a lot of adrenaline rushes, and I think there's some emotional attachment.

A lot of people in our city have to that, but I'm with you. I mean, the Bears are sitting there with the number one overall pick in a draft that the most experts in the league have been anticipating for two or three years, and they have an opportunity to link up with a quarterback whose skill set football wise is off the charts. Now, the homework assignment here in these next 10 or 12 weeks is to try to figure out what the wiring and the DNA of Caleb Williams is to figure out whether he has the mental fortitude and the resilience to withstand struggle, withstand criticism in a market like this one that's starving for success. But I don't think that when this when push comes to shove that this will be a very difficult decision for general manager. Right.

Because there's a number of reasons why it has to be. I mean, I could actually see if Chicago wanted to trade back a pick, right? I mean, if you wanted to trade to two and take Drake May as opposed to Caleb Williams, I could see that.

But with all respect to Justin Fields, who clearly was better in the second half than the first half when he finally did get healthy. If for no other reason, then you reset the financial clock where you're rather than going into year four, you're going into year one with the quarterback, which allows you another which at least forget about year one. It allows you years two and three and four of a quarterback on a low salary who just might be a top 10 quarterback in the league, which allows you to build your roster out.

To me, it just makes logical sense. Yeah. And it's not just any quarterback as we've talked about. This is a talent that is on the special level in terms of things that he can do as a in the pocket thrower, which is obviously something that Justin Fields has struggled with for three seasons in the NFL. He's obviously a guy who has made a living as an improv highlight reel, right? And so look, they they're there.

There's a lot here. I think the counter argument to using that pick on a quarterback is that you can get such a hall for that number one pitch and build up the rest of your roster in a way where you feel really, really good about all of it. I'm still of the opinion that the quarterback drives everything. It's the engine of success in this league.

We've seen that throughout the playoffs to this point. We've seen that throughout the playoffs for decades, and it's now the Bears opportunity to, as you mentioned at the outset, take what I've deemed a gift card from the Carolina Panthers and use it without having to do what all these other teams who are interested in Caleb Williams might have to do, which is trade a boatload just to have him be part of your team. You've got a pic that didn't even belong to you that you can use in April and then go forward with all of the pluses and pros that you just mentioned, but how many draft picks do you need? Because you've got one and nine and Justin Fields like I could are I would argue and I said this last week. I would keep Justin. I wouldn't trade him right away. I would keep him and let him play in year one and let whoever, whoever you draft, whether it's Caleb Williams or if you decide, if the Bears decide that Drake May is more wired to be the guy, that's fine. It doesn't matter to me who it is, but make it where that guy doesn't have to play in year one because I keep arguing this and I understand what the reality is in the league. Patrick Mahomes started one game as a rookie because they had Alex Smith.

Jordan Love didn't play at all in his first three games. It makes sense. Lamar Jackson didn't play right away. It makes sense to allow these guys time to understand the NFL game since college football and pro football might be chess and checkers. So why, why would we force these guys to play right away because they were the first pick so Fields would buy you a year of and if he has anything similar to the year, he just had you can get another first round pick for him. Why wouldn't they do that? I'm okay with the philosophy. I'm not okay with it being Justin because I think you're creating a circus that they don't have strong enough tent poles to handle in regard.

It's just just in regards to just the way it would be here on a daily basis. You'd have national media at every training camp practice. There would be a frenzy on who is it? Is it Justin or Caleb?

Is it Caleb or Justin? And it would create a drain, I think, inside that locker room. Now, if you want to do that, there's going to be a veteran market of quarterbacks also that you could use as bridges until your rookie is ready to play. The Bears tried that when Justin Fields was a rookie with Andy Dalton. And then as fate would have it, Andy Dalton in the third quarter of the second game hurt his knee and it was time to turn Justin loose. And once they get them loose, there was no turning back. And that's what happens to a lot of these teams that don't have stability at that position is you end up going in with the plan to let the up and coming rookie sit and learn.

And then you get forced by circumstance into playing them earlier than you wanted. And then they've got to try to navigate that. It'll be fascinating here to see what happens.

The world is open to the Bears. This is what I've been calling the ultimate choose your own adventure for them this off season where literally every scenario you could dream of is on the table for them. Now they've already crossed off a couple of scenarios by keeping Maddie reclusive, their head coach and trying to reboot with their offensive staff. But they've got the options like literally, it's one of those years where every hypothetical is on the table. And then you've just got to find a way that you think propels you towards a sustained run of success.

One of the things that gets lost in Chicago is people see a team that improved this year and had a really good second half of the season. And they think you got to strike in 2024. Well, that's great. But you also have to try to set yourself up for a period of success where you can be in the playoffs seven times in the next nine years. Right. And that's escaped this franchise forever.

So that's got to be that priority as well. So what is the market? We're talking with Dan Wieder of the Chicago Tribune at Dan Wieder on Twitter. What is the market for Fields? Is he a first round pick plus another high draft pick, whether it's a second round the following year? What is the market for him? Yeah, I don't see it being that high. Now, we're going to have to sift through a lot of rumor and speculation here in the coming months and figure out what the actual market is versus what the rumored market is. I think this is a unique year because you mentioned a bunch of guys and add Michael Pennix and JJ McCarthy to the list of quarterbacks in the draft that a lot of teams are going to want to see. Can we get one of those guys?

And if we can't, then what's plan B for us? And so it may take a while for the supply and demand curve as it relates to Justin Fields to spike in the direction that the Bears want it to, because I think other teams are going to explore other avenues. What I've heard from people around the league for the last couple months is it's a two, it's a three. This talk of a one kind of jumped into the public vernacular this week via Mel Kuyper. And I don't think it's there yet, particularly with all these other options that are out there and also just saying that the landscape of this league needs to settle a little bit with all these coaching vacancies that need to be filled.

And you have to figure out who's making decisions for what organizations. I bring that up because the Falcons have been a team popularly hammered to be a Justin Field suitor. Well, you'd have to figure out what Bill Belichick thinks of him if that's the direction that Arthur Blank decides to go here in the next week. I mean, the Jets got two second round picks for for Sam Darnold. Now, granted, remember who they got? I understand.

I was going to I was going to point that out. And for people watching on unlike on our video stream, we have the Panthers logos on either side of the screen. So, yeah, it was the Panthers that gave up two second round picks for Darnold. But yeah, I don't get the sense that it's that far off of that for somebody, especially the second half of the year that Fields had. And that in some ways is why I understand what you're saying and that Chicago is such like if it was a different city and the exact same circumstances with the team, like if it were Arizona or even Green Bay, like you could see the city withstanding that.

But I understand Chicago or Philadelphia, probably the best cities to to roll those dice. But if Fields has a good year, then maybe his value goes up versus what it might be right now. Well, he'll be answering the final year of his rookie deal. And it would be reckless for the Bears to exercise the fifth year option with what he's shown to the first three, which they have until early May to do. OK, so the kind of is a free agent, right? Yeah, the contract will kind of guide a little bit of the trade value as well, because teams that are trading for him want to do a lot of that on their own terms and decide what they think of his long term future. Do you want to begin extension talks, which I don't think anyone would? Or do you want to put him through a tryout year? And the trial year obviously would take some time to to get a guy to learn a system, to be acclimated with your building, to understand the players that he's playing with.

And so it'd be fascinating. I think today, Adam is 100 days until the first round of the NFL draft. Every single day going forward, there's going to be buzz on this topic and there is going to be every talking head in America weighing in on this in a way that for people like me, my head probably will explode by St. Patrick's Day.

Chumbacassino.com. Well, my money's on you to negotiate it, Dan Wieder of the Chicago Tribune. I appreciate your time, man. I know this is a busy time, but I think we all kind of like we glean energy and enthusiasm from covering stories like this. And you do a great job and I appreciate everything.

Thanks, Adam. I just think Chicago Bears right now is a very exciting time. Yeah, if you make the right decision, you can hit that springboard that you've been missing for for three decades.

And once you hit that springboard, you just laugh at the rest of the league. But you've got that guy locked in and it's no turning back. Two weeks ago, we talked to the guy who still holds the single season passing record for the Bears. Eric Kramer, only only franchise in the league that had never had a 4000 yard passer. And they still have not had a quarterback throw for 30 touchdowns either. So wrap your brain around that.

And it's it is incredible. I mean, Jim McMahon, it's like one of the great fallacies that he was a great quarterback. He was just perfect for that particular team. But, man, they like my favorite Bears quarterback of all time is Vince Evans.

We'll just leave it at that. I love Vince Evans as a kid. Boy, that's not a lot to choose from, are there? I would go with Rex Grossman, but that was the same period of life I had real quick. I was in Vegas. I don't ever wager we play a we wager a fake wager every day here on the show. I don't ever place bets on sports.

But we're in Vegas and it was legal. So I did it. And I had twenty dollars on whoever the Bears tight end was at the time when they were in the AFC NFC championship game to catch the first touchdown or score the first touchdown of that. And Grossman had him wide open in the middle of the end zone and threw it through the uprights.

And at that point, I can't even think about Rex Grossman. I'm done. OK.

Sorry about that. I think Helen Davis might have been the guy. No, it was the guy who played at Wake Forest, actually. Clark. Yes. There you go. It was like twenty to one for Desmond Clark to score the first touchdown.

And I'm looking at like four hundred dollars. And Grossman threw a field goal. Like, what are you doing? He wasn't even covered.

He was wide open. All right. Now, if you lost the scars, the scars are now new. Dan, I'll talk to you soon, man. All right. Always good talking to you. Thanks. That waiter is best. Yeah.

Unfortunately, in because people don't care about this, but I'm going to tell you anyway. So the Patriots were playing the Colts in the AFC championship game. This is an absolute true story. And one of their running backs was named Lawrence Maroney, who was, I think, a kid out of Minnesota. And they had two good running backs.

Maroney was 18 to one to score the first touchdown of that game. And I had money on that. And I had money on Desmond. What was his name again?

Whatever. The kid who played at Wake Forest at twenty to one. Each twenty dollar bet on both. Lawrence Maroney first drive. Handoff at the one yard line. He's going in. Right. He fumbles on the way in. No. And it's recovered in the end zone by the Patriots.

Oh, no. So it was an offensive lineman guy named Dan Cleco recovered the. What a clever recovered recovered the fumble in the end zone for the first touchdown. And and then Desmond Clark was the tight end. And Grossman missed him. I had both.

Yes. You were smelling the money and got nothing. And you had already spent it in your brain.

We got nothing. Hey, guys, it is Ryan. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a fun fanatic when I can. I like to work, but I like fun, too. It's a thing.

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