Once I read that Kirk Cousins was leaving the Minnesota Vikings for free agency and signed with the Atlanta Falcons, I was ready to pounce on my fellow reporting cohort Michael’s fandom for his loser franchise losing a possible opportunity to have a bounce-back season after Cousins missed a large portion of the 2023-24 season. The season proved that without Cousins under center, the Vikings were mediocre on offense with that astronaut-turned-quarterback Josh Dobbs launching passes into orbit and their draft pick Jaren Hall getting himself sent to the blue tent in his first few plays of his career. I appreciate your moxy, Hall, but the brains weren’t all there before you decided to dive head-first into walls of men, and they aren’t going to be there after.
Cousins has been an above-average player for the entirety of his career, but can never quite get over the “elite” barrier that could propel his team to the Super Bowl. However, he is without a doubt a legend in the bank. I’d rather be well paid than be the best to ever do it and Cousins is probably on a first name basis with the tellers at his bank.
With him out of the way, it opened the door for my Chicago Bears to potentially do something greater with their quarterback Justin Fields; Fields showed some promise throughout the season, but also exhibited some failures of his own…we’ll call it a net positive of a season for him. I was excited to read the reports that Bears GM Ryan Poles made some offseason acquisitions in DeAndre Swift and Kenan Allen that would make the Bears offense more potent on paper. Two strong wide receivers and a versatile back who can run and catch? It got me genuinely excited the Bears were providing more weapons for Fields to utilize in an attempt to ground him as a quarterback; he was average compared to his 2022 season with 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions, but his tendency to escape pressure and run out of harm’s way diminished last season, so it seemed like he was moving in the right direction. However, trade rumors and the potential decision to draft USC star Caleb Williams with the number one overall pick loomed over the Bears’ locker room. I believed that Fields had done enough to keep his job after three seasons with a less-than-impressive offensive squad, but Poles and the rest of the management decided that Fields’ best wasn’t enough and traded him away to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a sixth round pick that has incentive to be a fourth rounder.
So, the Bears have made their Caleb Williams basket and placed all their eggs into it. Have to get an Easter reference in for all you eggheads out there. Why are eggs and bunnies even associated with Easter? The holiday has obvious religious significance, but how it became a day of watching kids find neon-colored eggs with some bored father dressed up as a rabbit is beyond me. I do like the eggs filled with coins and dollar bills…I make sure to get to the venue early to snuff those out. What? I know how to spend that money better than those kids.
I can understand why drafting the hot-shot college quarterback who won the Heisman in 2022 can seem like an appealing choice for the Bears to become relevant again, but this decision by Poles will either make or break his career as a GM. You see similar moves in other sports where the GM makes a questionable call based on a huge gamble and if it works, they look like the biggest genius in the room and are rightfully crowned as one, or it doesn’t work and they get Easter eggs thrown at their head. Hey, you do know you’re supposed to hard boil these first? I had faith that with the newly acquired talent that Fields would be able to take that next leap of his young career; the Bears could have traded down to perhaps draft another stud receiver in Marvin Harrison Jr and a solid offensive lineman with the ninth pick to protect Fields. Instead, the team would rather start anew with a quarterback that was undeniably talented in college, but is completely untested when it comes to the NFL. Look at Bryce Young with the Panthers; undeniably skilled when he played for Alabama, but looked dreadful with Carolina…now that could be because the owner of the team is one of the most inept and rude owners of any major sport in America, but I digress.
The only good thing that comes out of this trade is that Fields lands in one of the best teams with one of the best coaches in the game with Mike Tomlin. Actually, there are two good things that come out of this…it gives me a chance to rag on my other fellow reporter Ricardo’s fanboy crush on Russell Wilson. Hey, Mike, Ricardo, look at us. The sports things we like…they all stink.