Nick Foles And Justin Fields Reportedly Hated Each Other
One common idea among NFL fans is that if you’re bringing in a young quarterback, the best thing to do is bring in a veteran who can mentor him. By this logic, the Chicago Bears had an excellent setup when they drafted Justin Fields in 2021. Not only had they signed former Pro Bowler Andy Dalton a month earlier, but they also had former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles still on the roster. If you were looking for sounding boards on what it takes to achieve long-term and peak success in the league, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Yet a new report suggests Fields completely squandered it. Tyler Dunne of Go Long did a massive exposé on the Bears’ recent quarterback failures and what led to them. Everybody remembers how Fields suffered through an ugly rookie season. Most blame the coaches for that mess, which is somewhat fair. However, Fields himself deserved some blame. It appears he lacked any humility or common sense regarding the two veterans, whom he apparently saw as nothing more than threats. It was particularly bad between him and Foles.
In reality? “F–king toxic as hell,” says one source. “They never were together. It was always Andy and Nick walking side by side and Justin always 15 yards behind them.”
There were several arguments amongst the QBs. Once, per one source, Foles was trying to teach something to Fields in the QB room and — upon turning toward the rookie — Foles realized Fields wasn’t even paying attention. His head was down. At that point, Foles was done trying to play mentor. The two could not stand each other. Around the building, one source says, “you cut the tension with a knife.”
Justin Fields wasn’t the humble young man people think.
Behind closed doors, he’d earned a reputation as a “surface-level” guy. He struggled to forge deep relationships with any of his teammates. Most didn’t hate him, but they didn’t like him either. He came off as someone with an inflated ego who lacked emotional maturity. Foles was probably one of the first people to sense that and didn’t feel it was worth the struggle trying to correct the issue. He contented himself with taking his paychecks the rest of the year and leaving for a new team the next off-season.
What followed could’ve been avoided if Justin Fields had bothered to listen. Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace were fired. Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus replaced them. They spent the next two years rebuilding the roster, allowing Fields to take all the hits and losses that came with them. Then, once things finally came together, they traded him to Pittsburgh, where he was trapped as the unquestioned backup behind Russell Wilson. Foles undoubtedly would see that as poetic justice.