Bears quarterback Justin Fields won’t be going to his hometown team.
The Falcons chose another NFC North quarterback Monday, agreeing to sign the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal.
Last month, Fields talked openly about the possibility of joining the Falcons via trade.
‘‘The only con of going back home is people hitting my phone like crazy, wanting tickets to the game,’’ Fields, who grew up in suburban Atlanta, told the St. Brown Brothers podcast. ‘‘They’ve got a lot of good players. They probably need one more receiver. But they’ve definitely got some guys over there, and their defense [is good].’’
Enough teams have crossed a starting quarterback off their shopping list this offseason that there’s no obvious starting job open for Fields, whom most around the league expect to be traded before the Bears draft USC quarterback Caleb Williams next month. The Bears continue to do their research on Williams and plan to attend his pro day next week before bringing him to Halas Hall for an interview.
The Steelers are signing Russell Wilson to a league-minimum deal, with the Broncos picking up the rest of the tab. The Buccaneers re-signed Baker Mayfield. The Raiders, who seemed a long shot to sign Fields after hiring former Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, agreed to give Gardner Minshew a two-year, $25 million deal Monday.
The Vikings are in need of a passer, but Bears general manager Ryan Poles has no incentive to trade within the division. Fields hasn’t given the Vikings a lot to love in person, either, going 1-3 and averaging 192 passing yards against them. The Vikings agreed to sign Sam Darnold to a one-year deal early Tuesday morning, per NFL Network.
‘‘Our approach heading into free agency always included layers of contingencies regarding the quarterback position,’’ Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said in a statement. ‘‘We are moving forward with plans that allow us to continue building a roster that can compete for a championship.’’
The Bears certainly will be able to land more for Fields than the sixth-round pick the Patriots got Sunday from the Jaguars for Mac Jones, but the days of them dreaming of a second-round pick seem to have passed.
The debate about Fields toward the end of last season was whether he was better than the No. 1 overall pick, not whether he’d be unable to find a starting job anywhere. Yet that’s where things stand after the first day of free agency.
The Broncos (with starter Jarrett Stidham) and Seahawks (Geno Smith) could upgrade, particularly if the Bears’ asking price falls from a second-day pick to Round 4 or worse. The Vikings, Broncos and Raiders are set to draft 11th through 13th, and the Seahawks have the 16th pick. Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels will be long gone by then. Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy might be, too, leaving Washington’s Michael Penix and Oregon’s Bo Nix as the remaining possibilities.
Teammates have lobbied the Bears to stick with Fields in 2024. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson said Monday that, while he wants Fields to stay in Chicago, the locker room is mature enough to handle his departure, if that’s what happens.
‘‘I know what it would do to keep him here; I know how we would feel with him here,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘We’ll all have our opinions, our emotions. But as far as the locker room staying together, I think we have the right guys in the locker room to keep us together.’’
There remains a possibility the Bears will keep Fields and draft Williams, but it’s considered remote. Williams’ adjustment to the NFL will be intense enough without having to worry about competing with a popular teammate for playing time.
Fields knows about the damage done to a rookie who doesn’t get starting snaps in the preseason. It happened to him in 2021, when he still was considered the Bears’ quarterback of the future.
