INDIANAPOLIS — The Bears will unofficially announce their intentions for the No. 1 pick in the draft weeks before commissioner Roger Goodell steps to the podium to call a name.
For the second consecutive year, general manager Ryan Poles must decide whether to trade out of the No. 1 spot and stick with quarterback Justin Fields — as he chose to do last offseason — or to deal Fields and start fresh at quarterback.
Poles’ action, or inaction, by March 13 will be the telltale sign.
Poles said he thinks the right thing to do would be to trade Fields by the start of free agency — 43 days before the first round of the draft — if the plan is to draft USC’s Caleb Williams or one of the other top quarterback prospects.
In other words, he must decide between Fields and the field within the next three weeks.
“If we go down that road, I want to do right by Justin as well,” Poles said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “No one wants to live in grey. I know that’s uncomfortable. I wouldn’t want to be in that situation, either. So, we will gather the information. We will move as quickly as possible. We are not going to be in a rush, and see what presents itself and what’s best for the organization.”
Before Poles’ arrival, the Bears infamously picked Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes in 2017.
But Poles’ record shows that he traded down from No. 1 to No. 9 last season for a package that included four-time 1,000-yard receiver D.J. Moore, a first-round pick (No. 1 in 2024) and two second-round picks.
It was a big haul, but he also traded out of a chance at C.J. Stroud, who had arguably the best rookie quarterback season ever after the Texans picked him at No. 2.
Moving off a chance to select Williams — who draws comparisons to Mahomes — is a reputation-staking gamble.
“It has to help our organization significantly to move around, because we saw what it did last year,” Poles said. “And I’m looking for that type of return ticket to improve our football team.”
If he is going to make an early decision, Poles better be certain that his top-rated quarterback prospect isn’t going to pull an Eli Manning and demand a trade to a different franchise.
There were reports that Williams might not want to be in Chicago.
“No concerns about that at all,” said Poles, who was the Chiefs’ director of college scouting when they chose Mahomes. “I would love to know why, if that was the case. I think as a young quarterback, and I’ve been around it, the infrastructure is important, and I think we’ve made really good progress in terms of having really good infrastructure for whoever were to come in — or if Justin were to stay here.”
There is a situation in which the Bears could trade Fields and also trade out of No. 1 — possibly within the top-three picks if they prefer North Carolina’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels or maybe even Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy to Williams.
In that case, a swap with the Commanders at No. 2 makes sense, especially in light of former USC analyst Kliff Kingsburgy’s recent hire as Washington’s offensive coordinator.
“With anything that can happen in this league, you always want to be involved,” Commanders general manager Adam Peters said. “Whether you actually pull the trigger or not, that’s a different story.”
Broncos general manager George Paton essentially ruled himself out of the trade sweepstakes for No. 1. He curiously left the door open to trading from No. 12 to No. 2 or No. 3, however.
“I think you have to love someone,” Paton said. “To move up to No. 1, I don’t know if we have the draft capital to do that. We’re open to anything, but that would be hard, realistically.”
The Patriots are leaving “all options on the table” as far as drafting a quarterback or trading out of No. 3, according to director of scouting Eliot Wolf.
But it all comes back to the Bears, who are 10-28 when Fields starts over the past three years. Fields’ team must decide on his $25.6 million option for 2025 by this coming May 2.
“The wiring of a quarterback — obviously No. 1 is leadership,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said. “All these teams that do things at the end of the season, they have winners at the quarterback spot.”
