(L-R) President and CEO Kevin Warren of the Chicago Bears, former Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings.
All signs point to the Minnesota Vikings adding a QB with franchise potential to the roster soon, but how the team will get that player remains to be seen.
At 6-6 with an inconsistent Josh Dobbs set to start his fourth game in Minnesota on Sunday, December 10, it’s difficult to predict where the Vikings will fall in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft and which quarterback prospect they might be able to land there.
However, there is one signal-caller Minnesota may be able to secure with its first-round selection regardless of whether that pick ends up at No. 10, No. 30 or anywhere in between. That player is Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
Strangely enough, it has been a brutal five-day run by the Pittsburgh Steelers that has created the circumstances by which Fields is now highly likely to be available via trade come March.
Pittsburgh lost to the 2-10 New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football after dropping a game to the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals the Sunday before.
The Carolina Panthers were already the sole NFL team with just one victory heading into Week 14, and there is now a two-game gap between the Panthers and the other two worst teams in the league. Carolina’s remaining schedule is far from daunting, but the odds the team wins two of its last five games are long, to say the least.
Chicago owns the Panthers’ first-round pick next April after trading the top selection in 2023 for that right along with a load of other assets — a deal that looks fantastic now, even despite the Bears passing up the chance to draft MVP candidate CJ Stroud. The deal will look less genius, as will Chicago general manager Ryan Poles, if the team passes on second consecutive franchise QB in 2024.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune wrote on Wednesday that the chances are increasingly likely the Bears will reset the quarterback clock by drafting one next spring.
“Keeping Poles’ overarching goal in mind, and understanding that the Bears probably have not checked all of the boxes they would like to at this point with Justin Fields, it seems like most signs point in one direction: selecting a quarterback at or near the top of a draft that should offer some excellent choices,” Biggs wrote.
GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has already kicked the can down the road on a new QB for two years. At some point, the Vikings need to take a swing. The Bears shouldn’t quibble too much about the positioning of the pick they get in return for Fields if they trade him, as long as it’s first-round value they’re getting back.
An 1,100-yard rusher from the quarterback spot in 2022, Fields can offer Minnesota a dynamic skill set at a reasonable price, and the Vikings will have a better sense of the player they are getting than they would by drafting a prospect in the mid- or late-first round.
As such, if O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah like what they have seen in Fields over the past two seasons playing against him in the NFC North Division, trading for the QB reads like reasonable path forward.
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