Experts agree: Bears QB Justin Fields was a winner at the NFL trade deadline

It’s no secret that the Bears need to give their second-year quarterback more help at receiver. The addition of Chase Claypool, formerly of Pittsburgh, should be an immediate upgrade. Claypool was a solid weapon in his first two seasons with the Steelers, but he’s only been averaging 9.7 yards per catch this season. He’ll find more targets in Chicago and more opportunities to make big plays for a quarterback who now has another supersized weapon to go along with N’Keal Harry. Claypool is especially skilled at contested catches. He’ll make life much easier for Fields, who’s starting to find a comfort zone in the Bears’ offense.

When Chicago traded for Claypool on Tuesday, it paired a receiver who should be a great deep threat with a passer who should be a great deep ball thrower. It feels like a solid match.

More importantly, it’s a sign that the Bears are willing to invest in Fields. Last month, I wrote about how it was difficult to evaluate Fields’s poor play because Chicago had surrounded him with a questionable coaching staff, a league-worst receiving corps, and a league-worst offensive line. Yes, Fields looked awful early in the season—but you could put a future Hall of Famer behind that line and ask him to throw to those receivers, and they’d look like a bust. Fields’s supporting cast was so weak that it was impossible to even determine whether he had potential.

The most pressing question for the Bears right now is whether Fields can grow into an upper-level QB. And by trading for a target who seems to fit with Fields’s skill set, they’ve finally shown interest in answering that question. He now has one tool—it would be nice for him to have three or four, but one is a start. Let’s see what he can build.

The Bears are getting some heat for how they moved Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, but those guys weren’t thrilled being a part of their rebuilding defense and needed to move them for best possible outside return. They needed to focus on being an offensive-forward team with Justin Fields and getting wide receiver Chase Claypool plays very well to that end.

The Bears used the second-round pick that they received in the Smith trade to acquire Chase Claypool, a talented yet underperforming player during his two-plus years with the Steelers. The fact that the Bears reportedly kept the rival Packers from acquiring Claypool makes Chicago a deadline winner.

From a tactical standpoint, if you have a burner getting downfield you’re taking one more defensive player out of the equation if and when Justin Fields decides to take off and run. From an aesthetic standpoint, Claypool offers you much more than a basic burner. I think the Bears are just starting hit their stride offensively. We mentioned the Cowboys game in the trade grades, and Fields’ zone-read game is so good right now — he had DeMarcus Lawrence stumbling a few times Sunday. Fields was also pushing the ball downfield pretty well and nearly connected with Velus Jones on a deep shot. Claypool gives them another wrinkle and another player you might want taking a handoff in the backfield from a different angle.

Before the complete madness of this deadline, one could’ve argued that Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence were without a paddle in Chicago and Jacksonville, respectively.

In Fields’ case, even with recent promising performances, his No. 1 receiver was Darnell Mooney. Now, Mooney is a nice player, but no one would confuse him for a matchup problem or someone you have to worry about if they’re the only meaningful downfield option. With the addition of classic X receiver Chase Claypool, Fields has a real go-up-and-get-it target that can complement Mooney. What’s more, Claypool can develop some chemistry with Fields through the second half of 2022 as the Bears start preparations for genuine competition in 2023.

The Chase Claypool move feels like an overpay for a wide receiver who has largely been inconsistent over the past couple years. He might not make a huge impact, but the Chicago Bears needed anyone on the outside who could be a legitimate downfield threat for Justin Fields.

The second-year quarterback has improved a good bit since the start of the season. This shows that the Bears are aware that they need to upgrade Fields’ supporting cast and are prepared to do so after a quiet offseason on offense.

The Bears are finally poised to continue their investment in Fields beyond the picks they used to draft him, which seems like a smart move after how he has played over the past month. This deal signals that reinforcements are coming for Fields; he just needs to make it to the end of the season. That makes him a trade deadline winner.

The Chicago Bears sold at the deadline, trading away defensive studs Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, but they did make one move that confirms the front office believes in quarterback Justin Fields.

Finally.

Chicago traded a second-round pick to Pittsburgh for wide receiver Chase Claypool, a former second-rounder who found himself in the backseat of the Steelers’ passing attack behind Diontae Johnson and the up-and-coming George Pickens.

Fields, the No. 11 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, entered the season with plenty of question marks. But he’s shown enough as a dual-threat playmaker this season where it’s fathomable to imagine him living up to the Quarterback of the Future billing that has haunted many Bears quarterbacks of the past.

On top of that, they got a headstart in acquiring young talent with the addition of Chase Claypool. Claypool had a phenomenal rookie year but later struggled and couldn’t reel in catches on a consistent basis. He didn’t have the greatest quarterback situation this year or last, but it’s not exactly the case that he’ll have one in Chicago.

But from Chicago’s end, that’s just fine. It gives them another tool to better evaluate Justin Fields, whose recent turn of play should give the Bears some optimism that there may be something yet in Fields.

Chase Claypool to the Bears is really interesting. I’m a big believer in Fields, who has shown tangible improvement over the past few weeks. Claypool, 24, is the kind of big-bodied, physical receiver whom Fields and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy will love having at their disposal.