Bears say bye to likability (Justin Fields) and hello to the idea of a Super Bowl title (Caleb Williams)

If you need someone to pull fingers from your death-grip attachment to Justin Fields, I’m here for you: The Bears were never going to win a Super Bowl with him as their starting quarterback.

Assuming a title is the goal, the whole glorious idea, at least there’s a chance now. Nobody can be sure how good Caleb Williams will be, but at this moment, it’s OK to think big – you know, provided the Bears use the No. 1 overall draft pick on the USC quarterback and not on Brand X.

The Bears traded Fields to the Steelers on Saturday, and it was either a good day or a bittersweet day, but it was not a bad day. The franchise was finally moving on from another quarterback miscalculation. Fields seemed like a good person and a good teammate. That will get you far in plenty of pursuits in life but not in the NFL, which values ability above all. The league doesn’t ask a quarterback, “What benevolent organizations do you belong to?” It wants to know how strong and accurate your arm is.

The final judgment on Fields’ ability as a passer is that he’s worth a 2025 sixth-round pick, which is what the Steelers gave up to get him. A conditional sixth-round pick a year from now is the definition of “better than nothing.’’ Look it up.

Chicago’s preoccupation with Fields’ classiness is why general manager Ryan Poles’ stated focus on getting to personally know Williams, although commendable in a due-diligence sort of way, is beside the point. Don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t judge a quarterback by his earnestness. The object is a winning QB, not a winsome QB.

Fields is a great runner, and when he tucked the ball under his arm, you knew not to look away. But the NFL’s lack of interest in him over the past few weeks let everyone know what it thinks of a one-dimensional talent. Fields, we’re told, will have the chance to learn the passing game from veteran Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh. Unspoken in that assessment is the belief that the Bears’ coaching staff – pick one, any one – would know how to teach Farsi before it would know how to teach quarterbacking. We’ll see if Steelers coach Mike Tomlin can get more out of Fields.

The scouting report on Williams is that he can both run and pass but that his throwing ability is outstanding. That’s what the NFL seeks, desires, covets. If you can be a dual threat, great. If you can do only one thing well, let that one thing be passing the ball.

Plenty of people think that there’s a sport peculiar to Chicago of building up quarterbacks in order to tear them down later. In this view of things, we’ll be waiting for Williams to fail so we can give him the same treatment. But that view is flawed because Fields was flawed from the start, as was Mitch Trubisky before him. Criticism of them didn’t lead to their uneven play. Their uneven play led to criticism.

We don’t know what Williams is yet, but too many people who are paid a lot of money by NFL teams are saying that he’s great. There has been vigorous debate about whether he’s a “generational talent.’’ All I know is that it’s a good thing if that’s what they’re debating about you.

The nonsense about Williams’ character – that he’s a diva, that he has too many people telling him what to do – is just that, nonsense. Here’s a novel approach: Stop looking for Boy Scout badges and start looking for an ability to hit a wide receiver in a tight window. Stop telling me about leadership skills in the huddle and start telling me about an ability to lead a team to touchdowns, especially in the fourth quarter.

The hope is that Williams will be so good so quickly that we won’t be arguing about Fields for much longer. Surely we’re all bone-tired of that debate. It’s not realistic to think that Williams will have a rookie year as good as C.J. Stroud’s 2023 for the Texans, but it is realistic to hope that there will be more than enough evidence of future greatness. That’s what you expect out of the No. 1 overall pick. It’s the reason rebuilding teams work so hard to be bad.

Fields’ social-media post Saturday thanking the Bears and their fans for how they treated him was massively popular, receiving more than 8 million views on X. It was nice. I’m tired of nice.

Maybe we’ll get something cocky and brash from Williams on draft day. A post filled with swagger would be a wonderful shock to the system: “It’s time to win a Super Bowl, Chicago.’’

A sentiment not up for debate.

The Justin Fields trade

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