What is Justin Fields' value to the Bears ... and the rest of the NFL?

The scenarios remain staggering. The rumors, worse.

Slot slides, future first-round draft picks, additional second- and third-round picks, an All-Pro position player plus draft picks, a potential All-Pro on an expiring contract plus draft picks, a future Hall of Famer on a buyout looking to flee a disrespectful situation. …

The options? Way worse and more staggering than both the rumors and scenarios.

But at the end of whatever decision the Bears make when it comes to their immediate future in this first ever elite-level quarterback saga for the franchise, there’s this: What is Justin Fields worth? Actually. In value, in compensation, in return on investment, on paper (contractually), on the field, in the locker room, to this city, to the city he’s about to go to. Is what they do and what they get in return for trading Fields just as — or more — important than what they do or who they pick at the one spot in April?

That is the weight Ryan Poles carries with him now, as the trade for Fields happens and after it's all over. And years after that. Because as much as Poles perfectly played the language game with reporters during the NFL Combine, speaking about how the Bears would treat the options in front of them, he knows (but strategically never said) that selecting anything other than a quarterback with the first overall pick in the draft is not an option.

Which brings us back to worth. The worth of a 24-year-old (25 on Tuesday) quarterback who has in three years been better (i.e., promising) than most of the quarterbacks the Bears have employed but not good enough for what the Bears need now. For many of the other teams in the NFL going through far greater quarterback tribulations than the Bears, Fields would more than likely be their franchise’s immediate resurrector. What is the get-back for for a player who they feel is not “the one” capable of saving them?

Is he worth at least the $21.9 million they’ll save in not picking up the year-five option on his current deal and the potential money against the salary cap they’ll dodge from spending had they decided to roll the dice on him being their guy?

This is not about being “fair to Justin” (as Poles said he was going to try to be in his decision-making). Although the appropriate approach, this is about the business of football in the NFL and what’s fair to a franchise and a city creeping up on our 40th anniversary of not having a Super Bowl kickback in “Bears” Plaza (aka: The Daley Center) or Grant Park. And while the Bears won’t let this conscious uncoupling play out the way they did three years ago with Mitch Trubisky, the reality that Fields’ worth at this moment is probably higher than any quarterback the Bears have ever had speaks to what they receive in return than their decision to give up on him.

Does it look like owning someone else’s first-round pick in 2025, 2026 or 2027? Does it look like makeup to cover up what they lost in 2017 in their move up one slot in the draft to get Trubisky? Does it look like less?

Does Fields’ worth look like Tyson Bagent opening the season as the starting quarterback until Caleb Williams is ready with Rome Odunze or Malik Nabers running routes along side DJ Moore because the Bears used Fields to move up a few spots from the No. 9 pick to create a wide receiver tandem on-par with any in the NFL? Does it look like a Pro Bowl center or a future All-Pro or future franchise-taggable running back? Does it look like a decision the Bears, again, years down the line won’t regret?

If you’ve noticed, this column was written with the foregone anticipation that a JF1 trade is imminent. That that decision has already been made, just for what they’ll ask for and what they’ll be offered in return hasn’t.

This once-in-two-lifetimes situation is something that can — from now until 2045 — deeply haunt the Bears until the McCaskeys decide to do a Reinsdorf and move the team from Arlington to Vegas once the NFL realizes at that time Las Vegas is big enough for a second team. And at the center of it all is a young brotha they originally drafted to be king. Which leaves only one unknown: What’s the cost of the Throne?