Justin Fields was near the top of the quarterback wish list for many Raider fans, and according to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, the Raiders had interest in Fields, as well.
But the Bears’ asking price for Fields was too high, and by the time they were willing to accept a reasonable offer for him, the Raiders had apparently moved on.
“They go get Gardner [Minshew] and then the price drops on Justin [Fields] immensely, but all of a sudden Justin isn’t as excited about coming to the Raiders because now he’s got to beat out two people, both relatively young,” Hondo said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast. “And the Raiders were not all that excited about adding him because of that fifth-year option, what it would cost, and if he has to beat out two other people, how do you know you’re going to get a good enough look at him before you have to exercise that option.”
The Bears initial asking price for Fields was said to be a first-round pick and that cost eventually dropped to a second-round pick, but by the time the Bears got into a price range that teams were willing to pay, it sounds like the Bears were left negotiating with themselves.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and others have framed the situation as one where the Bears did Fields a service by sending him to the team that he wanted, but they didn’t do him any favors by doing a deal when nearly every team in the league had settled on their quarterbacks.
“There was a lot of interest in Justin Fields,” Hondo said later in the podcast.
“One day there’s going to be a book written about how the Bears screwed up the trading of Justin Fields,” He continued. “It’s insane. I have no animus against the leadership, talking about the general manager of the Bears, but the handling of Justin Fields should have gotten him fired already. If I was the owner he would be gone… It [dragged out] until teams were able to address needs. Atlanta desperately wanted [Fields]. The Raiders were certainly interested, but then you go get Gardner and Justin looks at it [and doesn’t want to go there]… I can tell you of five teams that were specifically interested in Justin. The price was too high and by the time [the Bears] had to adjust, people were just low-balling.”
Reading between the lines a little, it sounds like the Raiders might have matched or beaten the deal that the Bears got from the Steelers for Fields, but Chicago GM Ryan Poles severely overplayed his hand and teams weren’t willing to wait around.
Now let’s see if the Bears can find a way to screw up the first-overall pick and accidently send it to Las Vegas.
twitter: @raidersbeat
I am a Bears fan and I think, they were being to greedy. They could have traded Justin to the first offer, but some where down the line. The Raiders were undecisive, and I believe they decided that. They were going go with, another quarterback. And the reason I believe they decided not to take Justin. Think the Raiders believe that they could a playoff membership game with Justin. They looked at his winning percentage, How many games he won the 3 years he been with the Bears. But to understand this youngman, an awful rookie season. Except for last year doing his rookie season, he didn’t get a training. Because the Bears had already had their starting, and that was Nick Foles. So remember doing training camp, quarterback get majority of the snaps. Justin didn’t have enough time to press the offense, because they were very bad. And also brought in Andy Dalton, both those quarterbacks got injured. And the only quarterback back that was available was Justin Fields, in against Cleveland Browns Cleveland. That was Justin Fields rookie start the offense was bad and the defense was bad. Have great protection and, he was sacked nine times in that game. It was Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy, for Justin Fields failure. They were the ones who! drafted him, had he had great coaches. And weapons around him, he would have been success. Same thing what happened to the quarterback, of the Carolina Panthers. That quarterback to had a bad rookie year, all I can say is. I wish Justin Fields the best of Luck! in his career. Aw I forgot to mention, Justin told Ryan Poles. The if and when he gets traded, he rather play for the Pittsburgh Steelers rather than the Raiders.