Justin Fields Headlines Bears’ Losers After First Wave of Free Agency

The impact of NFL free agency goes beyond big contracts and high-profile players joining teams with high expectations. Those same teams have a roster of players whose roles will be affected by the caliber of free agents being signed. Some roster holdovers will lose playing time (or their jobs), while others will be vaulted into starting positions because, well, no free agents were added.

This will be the case for the 2024 Chicago Bears, who’ve added a handful of new players during the legal tampering period, some of which will start.

General Manager Ryan Poles hasn’t broken the bank early in free agency, but his calculated moves will have a negative impact on several Bears players. More importantly, the big move he hasn’t made may have the biggest impact of all.

Here are the three Chicago Bears players who have been the biggest losers in the first wave of free agency.

Justin Fields

No player on the Chicago Bears roster was a bigger loser after the first wave of free agency than Justin Fields.

Fields is in the most important offseason of his career. The Bears are likely to select Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, and the expectation was that Fields would be traded to a quarterback-needy team before clubs began filling their quarterback voids in free agency. That didn’t happen, and as a result, it’s difficult to find a team that will pony up a reasonable draft pick for Fields.

At this point, Justin Fields is trending toward being a backup quarterback in 2024. I’m sure a team will eventually make an offer — perhaps the Seattle Seahawks will view Fields as a very good quarterback-in-waiting behind Geno Smith.

If you had doubts about what the Chicago Bears should do at quarterback, the Justin Fields trade market should’ve answered them.

Roschon Johnson

Any chance Johnson had at emerging as the Bears’ starting running back in 2024 was lost the moment Chicago agreed to terms with D’Andre Swift in the first hour of the legal tampering period.

Johnson was headed for a training camp battle with Khalil Herbert to be the Bears’ RB1, now, he’s more likely to be RB3.

It’s a steep fall for a player who was pegged as one of the best-value picks of the 2023 NFL Draft. Johnson finished his rookie season with 81 carries for 352 years and two touchdowns. It might be a while before he sees a workload like that again.

Elijah Hicks

Hicks was a popular name as the Chicago Bears player who could emerge as the replacement for Eddie Jackson, but after Poles signed Kevin Byard to a two-year deal and agreed to terms with Jonathan Owens on a two-year contract, Hicks’ outlook is much bleaker.

Owens is more of a strong safety than free safety, but the fact the Bears focused on two players in that position group… isn’t great.

Hicks is a solid special teams player, and I think he’ll have to make his living in the game’s third phase for a little while longer. Any chance he had to start in 2024 evaporated in free agency.