How the Mac Jones Trade Impacts Justin Fields, Chicago Bears

The New England Patriots have agreed to trade quarterback Mac Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2024 sixth-round pick, according to multiple insider reports.

Trade: Patriots are finalizing a deal to send QB Mac Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars, sources tell ESPN. The trade cannot be processed until the new league year begins Wednesday and he passes a physical. The two sides were discussing a 6th-round pick, per sources.

Jones was… pic.twitter.com/dOceAGDDTm

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 10, 2024

Jones was part of the same 2021 draft class as Justin Fields, which saw five quarterbacks selected in the first 15 picks. Trevor Lawrence (No. 1 overall), Zach Wilson (No. 2 overall), Trey Lance (No. 3 overall) and Fields (No. 11 overall) were the others.

Jones joins Lance as the second quarterback from that first-round bundle to be traded, and there’s a good chance he won’t be the last. The Jets are actively trying to trade Wilson, and Bears GM Ryan Poles has made it clear that he’d like a Fields trade done as soon as possible.

Chicago is expected to select Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, which increases the urgency of finding a new home for Justin Fields. It was originally thought that the Bears would land (at least) a second-round pick for Fields, but that ship has long since sailed.

Fields’ trade market is bare right now. Teams that have been connected to the Chicago Bears as a potential trade partner appear to be waiting for the first wave of free agency to conclude before engaging in serious talks. Kirk Cousins is the biggest chip that must fall, if he re-signs with the Minnesota Vikings, the odds that the Falcons will offer a reasonable trade increase. If Cousins leaves Minnesota, it’ll probably be for Atlanta, and it’ll remove the Falcons from the Fields “sweepstakes.”

Baker Mayfield is also expected to test the open market. Perhaps he lands with the New England Patriots or Las Vegas Raiders, knocking another quarterback-needy team off the radar. And there’s Russell Wilson, too, who’s already getting interest from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Mac Jones trade makes things even worse for Fields. It’s not that the Jaguars were in the mix for him, instead, the fact that Jones, whose production isn’t that much different from Fields’, netted only a sixth-round pick suggests the Bears might have to settle for an early Day-3 selection if they’re hyperfocused on trading their quarterback.

And that’s being generous.

“Right now, the message the Bears are getting back from teams is that they don’t consider Fields more of a sure thing than other potential one-year options such as Sam Darnold or Drew Lock, who wouldn’t come with the fifth-year option decision that Fields” eventual team will have to make by early May,”