Culture
The Justin Fields trade market: Which teams might be interested and what could Bears get?
A year ago at the NFL Scouting Combine, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles announced that his team was open for business — the first pick in the 2023 draft was available.
“We need a lot, and that (first pick) gives us more opportunity to bring in more players,” Poles said then. “It’s a good situation to be in for where our club is.”
The combine then became an information-gathering mission for Poles and the Bears. They needed to do their due diligence on the quarterback class, which included interviews with Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson.
But Poles also needed to leave Indianapolis with an accurate gauge of the trade market for the first pick — and he got it. A few days after the combine concluded, the Bears traded the first pick to the Carolina Panthers.
The goals for Poles at this year’s combine should be similar. The Bears will meet with the best quarterbacks: USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and potentially others.
And then Poles also will have trade markets to feel out through his conversations with other GMs. Similar to last year, one market could be for the first pick. Another could be for current starter Justin Fields.
For Poles and the Bears, what’s the greater risk? Is it sticking with a quarterback who has the belief of his teammates but still ranks in the bottom third in the league in many statistical areas? Or is it passing on the best QBs in the draft for the second year in a row?
Which teams could be interested in Fields?
According to NFL.com, 66 quarterbacks started for teams during the 2023 season. That’s a lot. But two more started for teams during the 2022 season. That’s wild.
Teams are always looking for quarterbacks — and some won’t be able to find answers in free agency or in the draft. Unlike other teams, the Bears have certainty with the first pick.
There were 12 quarterbacks included in Randy Mueller’s rankings of the top 150 free agents for The Athletic. Only two of them — the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield — made the top 20. San Francisco 49ers backup Sam Darnold was next at No. 98.
The trade market comes next. Teams will seek certainty at the most important position in sports heading into the draft. There could be a competitive market for Fields.
With the help of The Athletic’s beat writers, here are five potential trade partners to consider as the NFL world descends on Indianapolis next week.
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Atlanta Falcons
New Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson didn’t give away much when talking about what the team wants in its next quarterback.
“Whether it’s a pocket guy, whether it’s a guy who can move around a little bit, we’re just going to be looking for the best guy,” Robinson said.
However, the fact Robinson has spent his entire career under Rams coach Sean McVay in Los Angeles suggests he’s looking for a Jared Goff-Matthew Stafford type. Fields’ big arm will appeal to Robinson, though. Robinson said the first thing he looks for is “how somebody throws the football and what that looks like.”
Whether the Falcons pursue Fields may simply come down to options. They don’t have a clear path to their next quarterback considering they pick eighth in the first round, and Atlanta isn’t one of the league’s top free-agency destinations. — Josh Kendall
The Broncos witnessed the full Justin Fields experience at Soldier Field in October as he put up big numbers but made a couple of critical mistakes late. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Denver Broncos
Sean Payton saw Fields at his best when the Broncos visited the Bears in Week 4 last season. Fields completed 28 of 35 passes for 335 yards and a career-high four touchdowns (a total he would match the next week). But in a narrow Bears loss, Fields also lost a fumble that was returned for a Broncos touchdown and threw an interception on Chicago’s final drive, sealing the defeat.
After voicing frustration with Russell Wilson’s inability to protect the football during key stretches last season, I don’t see the Broncos giving up significant draft capital for a quarterback in Fields who, while younger and more athletic than Wilson, hasn’t been able to fully address his ball-security issues.
If the Broncos are going to move draft capital in a deal to acquire a quarterback, it is more likely to be a move for a rookie Payton can mold in his offense, even if that means the player has to sit for a season behind Jarrett Stidham. — Nick Kosmider
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Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders are very unlikely to pursue Fields because they hired the offensive coordinator who was fired after working with him in Chicago last season.
Luke Getsy was selected by the Raiders because of his work as passing game coordinator with the Packers and his run-game concepts with the Bears, as the Raiders decided the biggest problem with the Bears offense the last two seasons was the quarterback and not the offensive coordinator. Getsy also worked with Raiders receiver Davante Adams in Green Bay. — Vic Tafur
New England Patriots
The Patriots are exploring all options for upgrading their quarterback situation, even if the most likely avenue means using the No. 3 pick on the position. But they could be tempted to draft Marvin Harrison Jr., arguably the best wide receiver prospect of the last decade. So perhaps there’s an argument for trading for Fields and using that top pick on Harrison, immediately upgrading both quarterback and wide receiver — arguably the two biggest weaknesses on the roster.
Even if it seems the Pats are more likely to pursue a quarterback with their third pick, if those to-be picks (likely Maye and Daniels) underwhelm in interviews at the combine, perhaps the Patriots would consider parting with their third-round pick (No. 68) for Fields. — Chad Graff
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Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers have two paths they can take at quarterback: Hope new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith can unlock something in Kenny Pickett the NFL hasn’t seen or look for an upgrade elsewhere.
While the Rooney family is known for taking a patient approach, general manager Omar Khan has done business with the Bears before, and Fields may be the most realistic of the outside options. Fields’ mobility would add another wrinkle to the run-heavy scheme Smith is likely to install, and the former Buckeye’s big arm would showcase the skill set of underutilized deep threat George Pickens. The quarterback would also be backed by what’s projected to be the NFL’s highest-paid defense, so he wouldn’t be asked to be a finished product right away.
But what’s the price? If you’re giving up something to get him, it’s probably prudent to double down by picking up the estimated $23.3 million fifth-year option in May. Beyond that, and maybe most significantly, the Steelers would have to be ready to punt on Pickett. That’s a big bet for a quarterback the Bears aren’t sold on just three years after giving up four picks to get him. — Mike DeFabo
How would a trade play out?
Last year, the New York Jets went all in. They traded for Aaron Rodgers.
In 2022, the Broncos pushed in all their chips. They acquired Russell Wilson.
A team that’s interested in Fields and then acquires him in a trade with the Bears wouldn’t be doing the same. It could be hedging its bets at the position, not solely betting on Fields.
Fields’ situation also looks different from the Panthers’ desperate decision to acquire Darnold from the Jets in 2021 for a sixth-round pick in that draft and second- and fourth-rounders in 2022. The Panthers then guaranteed his fifth-year option.
Those three trades, though, happened before the draft. That’s important. Some QB-needy teams will seek clarity before the unpredictability of the draft. Other teams might be more compelled to wait until the draft.
Poles’ plan will have to be flexible, but only to a certain point. The Bears have complimented Fields since the season ended. Poles, coach Matt Eberflus and president/CEO Kevin Warren have all done it. But that could be viewed as an attempt to create leverage in trade conversations that could be coming their way in Indianapolis.
For all of his physical gifts and glimpses of potential stardom, Fields’ numbers tell you not to pick up his fifth-year option for the 2025 season.
Among qualified QBs, Fields finished the 2023 season 29th in completion percentage, 23rd in passing yards per game, 22nd in passer rating, 24th in QBR, 26th in adjusted net yards per attempt, 31st in sack percentage and 22nd in interception rate (according to Pro Football Reference). His numbers on third downs, in the fourth quarter and in late-game situations don’t inspire much confidence, either.
As always, more context is required. The Bears, as an organization, should be blamed for his failures as much, if not more, than he is. But the situation is what it is. The Bears built in the option to pivot from Fields if needed.
Fields, though, could still be the best option for other teams after free agency and before the draft. The difference between the Bears and those teams is that they have the first pick. The draft still starts with them.
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(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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