Next year for sure. Give him a 4th year, like Mitch had.
Just since you brought up "like Mitch". I was wrong about Mitch, and obviously higher than you were after those solid years when the Bears were winning. I'm sure I was still defending him after year 3 in Chicago, when his play had fallen off a lot from the year before, and in retrospect I was wrong about that. I stuck with him too long.
I could be totally wrong about this, but I like to think that IF, that year, the Bears somehow had the #1 pick in the draft and could've drafted Burrow I would've thought that was probably the right move. That is something that
absolutely plays into this conversation more than probably either of us acknowledge.
A few times you've said I thought Fields just sucks. I don't, really. I obviously see his appeal, especially in the run game where he's undoubtedly super fun to watch and exciting. The fact that the Bears not only have the #1 pick this year, but in a year that supposedly has two really, really good quarterback prospects that will almost certainly go #1 and #2, meant I probably needed to see more out of Fields than I would've in a regular old "3rd year QB" situation. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if the Bears had only their own pick, I would be right there with you saying I thought Fields needed another year. Or like, if the Panthers pick were at 3rd instead of 1st, I probably think differently about the whole thing.