I don’t disagree, but we know how much the McCaskeys hate the Pack.

For the record I’m a Bears fan (and haven’t been an OSU fan for nearly 15 years despite my username, so no attachment to Fields or MHJ as Buckeyes, for clarity). I was at Soldier Field both of the last two weeks. I do love Fields so I’m biased, but as you mentioned, his teammates love him too and the city does also. I think the former matters slightly. I don’t think the latter really does/should, although I’d note Chicago is not an easy market to be the QB, and Fields seems to embrace it and vice versa. I’m not sure a guy like Caleb would have a good time with the Chi media/fan scrutiny.

I think in general people are looking at it a bit too much as “Caleb vs Fields” when really in my opinion it should be “Caleb vs haul” which even further boils down to “Caleb”. If you think Caleb is a Lamar/Mahomes/Allen/Burrow, draft him. If you don’t think he is, I’d take the haul. Even if Fields isn’t the long-term answer, you can’t really go wrong with getting a draft haul and not drafting Caleb unless he does become that elite QB.

The contract clock is a bit overrated in my opinion* because if you’re trading down, you’re going to save cap with those extra first round picks anyway rather than have to fill those with free agent signings. And if you draft MHJ (after trading down, no way you should draft him at 1), you get your badly-needed WR2 on a rookie deal rather than overpay in free agency for a WR 2 (and MHJ will not only be cheaper, he’ll almost certainly be way better than any FA options).

As far as Fields himself, he has nearly all the physical tools you could want in a QB: arm talent, size, strength, speed, demeanor, leadership. He’s definitely improved in certain areas like anticipation, but could still grow more there, and consistency in general. I think he also shows more ability to utilize anticipation throws to Moore/Kmet, which might mean it’s more of a trust thing for Justin rather than an inability to do it. The only things that truly concern me are his slow release and the 4th quarter play (which I still don’t really understand since he generally appears cool/calm/confident, so I’m not sure if it’s a weird statistical fluke or actual legitimate issue).

*(You also can just pick up Fields’ 5th-year option for 2025 and don’t need to extend him this offseason for 2026; that gives a bit of options and more time to evaluate too. Not ideal if you pass on Caleb if Fields doesn’t work out, but that ties into what I said earlier: if Caleb’s not elite, the haul might be the better result anyway. Then draft a different QB, get one in free agency/trade, etc., after next year or 2025.)

This post was edited on 1/2/24 at 8:18 pm