Dan Campbell has always been high on quarterback Justin Fields, sharing big praise for the Chicago Bears quarterback late last season.
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Now, the Detroit Lions head coach has a new emotion when it comes to Fields and his latest career move — relief.
Campbell spoke out this week about the trade that shipped Fields out of the NFC North and over to the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he is expected to back up veteran Russell Wilson. After having to face the multi-talented quarterback many times over the last three seasons, Campbell said he’s happy to have Fields off their schedule.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s nice to have Fields out of that division,” Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell told reporters on March 26, via SB Nation reporter Jeremy Reisman.
Bears Move on From Fields
With the Bears holding the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s NFL Draft and USC quarterback Caleb Williams there for the taking, many expected Fields to be traded this offseason. But the low return the Bears ultimately got for Fields was a surprise, NFL.com’s Kevin Patra noted.
“The Bears traded Fields to Pittsburgh in exchange for a conditional 2025 sixth-round pick, a far cry from what most expected Chicago to recoup in trading its former first-round pick,” Patra wrote. “With few obvious landing spots open, however, the Bears had little choice unless they were willing to hang onto Fields into the draft and perhaps beyond.”
Though Fields was just 2-3 against the Lions in his career in Chicago, he often caused problems for Detroit’s defense, especially on the ground. Fields topped 100 rushing yards in three of the last four games against the Lions, rushing for 441 total yards with three touchdowns during that stretch.
Dan Campbell Called Fields ‘Dangerous’
As Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway noted, Campbell has always been a big proponent of Fields. Speaking to reporters in December, Campbell called the Bears quarterback “dangerous” and said he’s a headache for Detroit’s defense.
“Listen, he’s dangerous,” Campbell told reporters. “He’s one of these rare, dangerous players and I’ll tell you what he’s done a really good job of — from last year to this year — is if it’s a pass and he starts to move, he’s still moving with eyes down the field much more than I felt like he had previously and that’s extremely dangerous because even in Minnesota, he had two or three receivers wide open after he had kind of run, found a way through, broke contain and all of a sudden he gets an explosive pass off of it.”
Bears general manager Ryan Poles admitted that it was difficult for the team to move on from Fields, especially given his personal connection to the quarterback.
Trading Justin Fields was one of the hardest things Ryan Poles has ever done, the #Bears GM said today.
Poles went over to coach Matt Eberflus's house so they could call Justin together to inform him about the trade.
Chicago has immense respect for Fields. pic.twitter.com/B9vJLulRCT
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) March 26, 2024
“Justin, probably one of the harder things I’ve had to do,” Poles said, via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I always kind of touch on the empathy part, like having that conversation with my own son was hard. His jersey’s up in his room. So, it kind of puts that into perspective of how difficult those moves are.”
