Just two and a half years ago, the Chicago Bears moved up in the 2021 NFL Draft and selected Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th pick. It was one of those moments as a sports fan, and more specifically, a Bears fan, where I actually remember where I was and all of the things I felt at the time. It was elation. It was the feeling of a burden being lifted off the shoulders of the entire fanbase. It was hope personified in the young man we'd come to adoringly call QB1.

Bears' QB history

Fast forward from April 2021 to November 2023, and Fields' record as the starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears is 6-25. It's a far worse winning percentage than Rex Grossman (19-12 as the Bears starter), Kyle Orton (21-12), Cade McNown (3-12), Erik Kramer (18-28), washed Kordell Stewart (2-5), beyond-washed Chris Chandler (5-8), and Jay Cutler, whose 51-51 record as the starting quarterback of the Bears is a perfect encapsulation of what the Cutler era was like in Chicago.

It's not easy being a fan of the Chicago Bears. I was born into it. I had a Bears blanket on my bed from the time I was a baby, and slept with it well into college. I've had real rooting interest in this team ever since I was eight years old and saw them play in person for the first time, a 20-3 defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, almost 23 years ago to the day in fact. Two Bears quarterbacks took the field that day: Shane Matthews (8-7 as the Bears starter) and Jim Miller (15-11). And if you're not a Bears fan and haven't heard of Matthews or Miller, that's my exact point.

The Bears have had historically great defenses multiple times throughout their long, 100-plus-year history. The teams of the 40's that earned the team its “Monsters of the Midway” moniker. The Dick Butkus-led Bears D of the 60's and 70's. The '85 Bears D, loaded with Hall of Famers and eventually Super Bowl champs. The always-solid defenses of the 00's led by Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs and Peanut Tillman that carried the Bears to relevancy. The enormously fun 2018 Bears defense, fueled by the preseason acquisition of Khalil Mack. And yet, in that time, not one true, legitimate, franchise quarterback. It's been a Groundhog Day scenario for Bears fans for, well, practically 100 years. Even our most successful quarterback, Sid Luckman, wore #42… the number of a damn linebacker.

Will Justin Fields stay with the Bears?

That all makes this so much harder to come to grips with. This wasn't supposed to be the case with Justin Fields, and make no mistake about it, the amount of blame that should be placed on his shoulders is minimal in comparison to that of each of the two coaching regimes he's been saddled with in his short time in Chicago.

Despite the insane flashes of athletic brilliance and the plays that make it feel as though Fields is truly getting it at the highest possible level, there is still reasonable skepticism that he'll ever be able to put it all together. Whether that's a fundamental deficiency with Fields or just byproduct of being broken by rosters with little talent and coaching staff's with no sense of how to use him properly, this is where we're at.

And because the Bears will have two very high draft picks in a QB-heavy 2024 NFL Draft, there is good reason to believe the Bears could actually move on from Fields this offseason.

Dan Orlovsky is someone whose opinion I generally respect greatly, and he very well could be right, but my hope is he's dead wrong. I'm still holding onto that hope I felt the night the Bears drafted Fields. The night where it felt like a new era was finally coming. I still think he has it in him to break us out of this hellish Groundhog Day we're living in.

Until the damn wheels come off, I'll continue to ride with Justin Fields.