With Justin Fields being shipped to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday evening, the trade compensation came in lower than many expected. He netted just a conditional 2025 sixth-round selection that can turn into a fourth-round pick if he plays 51-percent or more of the team’s snaps in 2024. Soon after the trade broke, Bears GM Ryan Poles released a statement and revealed that multiple teams had been inquiring about Fields in the week leading up to the trade.
According to ESPN’s Bears reporter Courtney Cronin, they actually received a better offer and turned it down.
“The reason that they took this trade offer from the Pittsburgh Steelers after having what I was told was an offer to send Justin to a place where there was already an established staring quarterback that would’ve actually yielded the Bears a better deal in return,” Cronin said in a clip of her appearance on SportsCenter posted on X.