Draft prospect Brown believes trading Fields would be 'mistake' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
INDIANAPOLIS -- Cam Brown spent two years facing Justin Fields daily in Ohio State practice. The 22-year-old cornerback is acutely aware of how dangerous the Bears quarterback is and how difficult it is for defenses to stop him.
Brown has also heard the chatter surrounding Fields' future in Chicago and the possibility that the Bears could trade him and look to draft a different quarterback at No. 1 overall.
It's a discussion that doesn't make sense to Brown.
"I don't think they're going to do that," Brown said Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine. "I think that they believe in Justin and I believe he's a great player. So that would be I would say a mistake, but I just don't believe that they will do that. He needs ... hmmm."
Brown bit his tongue before criticizing the roster the Bears put around Fields. But a reporter chimed in from the crowd saying that Fields needs help.
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"He had a great season," Brown said. "He's a great player."
Fields' former teammates watched him run all over the NFL this past season, becoming just the third quarterback in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.
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But that's not the Fields the Buckeyes faced in practice every day in Columbus. That version of Fields picked them apart through the air, something the Bears hope the soon-to-be 24-year-old signal-caller can start to do at the next level.
"Another quarterback that can put the ball wherever he needed to put it," safety Ronnie Hickman Jr. said Thursday. "Luckily we really couldn't tackle him, so he didn't run too much. So we didn't see that. We just seen his arm capabilities. Like I said earlier about C.J. [Stroud], he's just a guy who can put the ball anywhere it needs to be. Far hash to the sidelines on a 25-yard comeback. Just throws you have to tip your hat to. At the end of the day, he made us better."
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Fields has been a hot topic of conversation this week in Indianapolis.
On Tuesday, Bears general manager Ryan Poles reaffirmed that Fields would be his starting quarterback in 2022. The Bears are expected to meet with all the top draft-eligible quarterbacks this week to do their due diligence, but the expectation in league circles is that Fields showed enough in 2022 to warrant another year with a better supporting cast around him.
Those who faced Fields in practice or in games know how dangerous he is and how high his ceiling is in the NFL.
Now it's up to the Bears to help Fields harness his potential and take off in Year 3.
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