Bears' Poles Jokes He Wished Justin Fields 'Was a Jerk' to Make Steelers Trade Easier

Justin Fields' positive personality and work ethic made it a little tougher for Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles to trade away the quarterback.

Poles joked with The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain he almost would've preferred if Fields "was a jerk" since that would've made him feel less conflicted.

"But he's such a good dude who worked his butt off," the GM said. "Was a great teammate, great in the locker room, handled the ups and downs really well. So it's really hard to move on from guys that you like personally."

Poles told reporters in February he wanted to "do right by Justin" when evaluating the 25-year-old's future, and he seemingly backed that up by sending him to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Signing Russell Wilson is probably at best a one-year stopgap for Pittsburgh, and the nine-time Pro Bowler almost certainly won't have a firm lock on the starting job. Nobody will be too shocked if Fields is running the offense at some point in 2024, which is something that couldn't have been said at every prospective landing spot.

Poles acknowledged to Fishbain his internal apprehension about trading Fields comes with the territory and is something that will be more common if the Bears start winning.

"Those decisions will continue to come with success," he said. "Again, you get to a point where a quarterback starts taking up a lot of cap space or you have a better team that does like, you can't keep everybody."